Updated | Parliament suspended as House requests ruling

Updated

Disagreements between government whip Carmelo Abela and opposition whip David Agius have led to the suspension of parliament as a ruling was requested.

The issue arose after Agius asked the Speaker to confirm parliament's next session. With the debates on the citizenship scheme, and the series of discussions planned to discuss the Budget, the Opposition pushed for extra sessions outside the usual 6pm to 9:30pm plenary sessions.

A meeting of the House Business Committee however had failed to establish the number of sessions required by the Opposition in discussing the citizenship scheme.

After almost half an hour of shouts of disagreements between Agius and Abela, with leader of the House Louis Grech intervening to calm down the situation, the Speaker was asked to give a ruling on what was actually agreed in the House Business Committee.

The same argument occurred last night, with the House eventually adjourning to today at 9am.

The Speaker ruled that it was up to the government to determine whether an extra session should be held.

Parliament eventually adjourned the House to this evening at 6pm.