The number of petitioners against the Embryo Protection Act is actually less than the amount originally stated due to multiple entries being allowed by the system, the Speaker Anglu Farrugia said on Monday evening.

The initial amount of over 8,000 signatures as noted in a statement issued by the Office of the Speaker has now decreased to around 7,700. The system has now been fine tuned to identify multiple entries, resulting in the decrease in the number of signatures.

Prior to this technical error being identified complaints were made as to the complexity of the system.

The Speaker said simplification of the system could not come at the cost of compromising the signature authentication process.

The petition started by Emanuela Cachia on April 3 requested the MPs to ensure the embryo is protected and for the Embryo Protection Act not to be amended. The petition is open till the end of May.

The Embryo Protection Act allows for embryos to be frozen with critics saying that the embryos may not survive the procedure resulting in embryos being thrown away.