Open divorce referendum question could mislead public – pro-divorce movement
The pro-divorce movement warned that an open question could mislead the public on what they are voting on.
In a statement on Tuesday, Iva movement chairperson Deborah Schembri reiterated that the question upon which the upcoming divorce referendum will be based shouldn’t be a generic one but should reflect the divorce draft bill that is currently tabled in parliament “so the people will truly know what they are voting on.”
Schembri argued that a generic question would “give no indication of what type of divorce one would be voting in favour of.” While more lax forms of divorce such as the “Las Vegas divorce” can be obtained overnight, “more responsible forms of divorce can be obtained only when all hope of reconciliation is exhausted, she said.
Given that both options are nevertheless forms of divorce, “any voter needs to be guided through the referendum question as to which sort of divorce one would be referring to, so that one’s vote truly reflects what one is in favour of,” Schembri said.
She added that a specific referendum question matters to those who are in favour of divorce, as while some might be in favour of responsible divorce as it is proposed in parliament, and not a more lax quick-fix divorce.
“To those who are against divorce, it won’t matter whether the referendum question is generic or not,” she said.
She also maintained that a generic question can be misleading because nobody would possess the means to show that they are voting in favour of a responsible option of divorce. “There would be nothing stopping anyone from interpreting the result as one that is in favour of a ‘quick-fix’ divorce,” she warned.
“It is not true that a specific question would condition voters to think of what sort of divorce they would find preferable without having decided whether they support or oppose divorce in principle,” Schembri said.
She urged those involved in the debate to not treat the public as if it is not mature enough to base its decisions on sound, mature thought.