MPs must be allowed to correct erroneous votes – Speaker

A moment of candour from Michael Frendo saw the Speaker of the House saying it was "ridiculous" that MPs who make a mistake while voting on a legislative act, cannot redress their error.

Frendo has presided over such moments of acrimony where both government and Opposition took each other to task over errors committed by MPs Justyne Caruana and Mario Galea during voting time.

"These cases are simply ridiculous... when somebody votes in a way that does not reflect their will, should I just accept that vote? As Speaker, in the name of Maltese democracy, I should interpret that MP's real intentions... and I should defend the will of MPs who deliberately vote against their side," Frendo said on Radju Malta's 'Ghandi Xi Nghid'.

Frendo stepped into a minefield just two days in office when he ordered a vote on a contentious motion to stop the Delimara power station extension, to be retaken. After a government MP had erroneously voted in favour of the Labour motion, the then deputy prime minister Tonio Borg called a point of order to claim that a Labour MP had also voted, erroneously, against her party's own motion.

Instead of consulting his clerk's notes which did not note anything irregular with Caruana's vote, Frendo consulted audio recordings that were not audible enough for him to determine whether Caruana had vote in favour or against.

The parliament needs more autonomy if it is fulfil its role as the country's epicentre of democracy, Frendo added, rueing the perception of the House as a government-run department.

Frendo said that even parliament's choice of legal consultant, the eminent constitutionalist Prof. Ian Refalo, required vetting and approval from the head of the civil service and the finance ministry, instead of using the government's Attorney General.

"I have challenged political parties to include parliamentary autonomy in their electoral programmes," Frendo said. "And it needs a time-frame," the Speaker, a former Nationalist minister, said.

Frendo has presided over five tumultuous years of parliamentary debate: battles of interpretation of Standing Orders, confidence votes that resulted in two high-profile resignations, and the Budget vote that brought Lawrence Gonzi's government down albeit at the tail-end of his legislature.

But it was Franco Debono's boisterous performance in the House and rebellion that provoked various changes in the House: amongst them filming committee meetings and House debates that were previously relegated to mere radio transmissions and online streaming.

Frendo also said that more space had to be devoted to parliamentary business in the pages of newspapers, especially to speeches by newcomers in the House. "We tend to see banal things being reported only... and neither should MPs banalise the institution itself. A good argument should be made public: otherwise, is the public going to vote only for those MPs who was available throughout the legislature to solve their bureaucracy problems only?"

The eleventh legislature came to an end in December before Frendo could form a new parliamentary committee to debate economic and financial affairs, which he has told MPs would be one of the most important committees considering the way Malta's budgeting system will change as a member of the eurozone and its Stability Pact.

A White Paper also seeks to give more administrative and financial autonomy to the parliament, with the creation of a Parliamentary Service and an office for a Parliamentary Commissioner on Standards.