Parliament votes on divorce bill today

The vote will be taken at 12:30pm at the close of a week and a half-long debate in the House of Representatives, after a majority had expressed themselves in favour of the introduction of divorce in a referendum held on May 28.

This morning’s session will see Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi finally reveal how he is going to vote, after weeks of silence as he will take the floor in plenary and “explain” his position.

Gonzi was first to declare himself against the introduction of divorce and led the PN to take the same stand, triggering a divide among his benches.

May’s referendum result shocked the PN, triggering an internal political crisis and a clear divide between conservative and liberal-leaning factions within the party.

So far, the Prime Minister has stressed that he will “ensure” that the decision taken by the majority in last May’s referendum be respected and had appealed to the House to also respect that decision.

Both Gonzi and the PN parliamentary group stressed that they will “ensure” the bill be passed.

Divorce bill co-sponsors Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Evarist Bartolo will then wind-up the debate before the vote.

Soon after the vote on the second reading, the House will immediately move on to the third reading in committee stage.

Both government and opposition parliamentary groups have since agreed to speed up the process and approve the divorce bill in the least possible time.

Parliamentary sources have told MaltaToday that the committee will go through the proposed amendments and carry them on for an eventual final vote on all, rather than taking a vote on each amendment.

Unless no problems arise during the committee’s deliberations, the committee stage is set to take just over a week to complete its work before the House is summoned again in plenary to take the final vote that would formally introduce the right for divorce in Malta.

A number of amendments to the bill - namely changes to wording and meanings in the English and Maltese texts and their interpretation – are expected to be analysed by a select number of MPs who will be assisted by teams of legal experts.

Former IVA chairperson Deborah Schembri is expected to be attending with a number of lawyers, while the PN and Labour parliamentary groups will aslos have legal representatives to follow the committee’s discussions.