The parliamentary vote for the land transfer agreement to Sadeen Group for the building of a higher educational institute to be developed at Zonqor and Cospicua went through this morning after a night-long parliamentary session which lasted till 9.30 a.m. The debate had started at 6.30pm on Tuesday, and lasted 15 hours.

Thirty-three MPs voted in favour of the project while 27 against. Independent MPs Marlene Farrugia and Giovanna Debono voted against it.

Earlier

Speaker of the House of Representatives Anglu Farrugia this morning ruled that the vote on the transfer of land to the Sadeem Group can go ahead as planned.

The ruling was requested after the Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil raised the issue that the Education Minister had used the word higher educational institute, rather than university.

In his ruling, the Speaker noted that any reference to higher educational institute can be taken to mean university.

Although the law said that Higher Educational Institutions shall not use the word 'university', there was also a proviso that the word 'university' could be used when programmes were presented in association with accredited an university.

Added to this, the motion referred to the contract to be signed was between two parties, namely the government and Sadeen Group, and therefore the vote could take place because it referred only to the transfer of property.