While parliament unanimously confirmed the choice of George Abela as the eighth President of Malta on Wednesday evening, the MPs known to have disagreed with the choice, namely Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, and Labour MPs Alfred Sant and George Vella, simply chose not to attend the parliamentary session.

The other Nationalist MP who was not present for the session was Mario Galea, who was absent for personal reasons which will not be disclosed by The Malta Independent.

Labour MP Silvio Parnis was also absent, but the reason he gave to this newspaper was that he had to present a television programme, Kliem u Fatti, broadcast every Wednesday evening at 8.30pm.

When contacted, Dr Pullicino Orlando did not want to comment on his absence in parliament on Wednesday, while attempts to get in touch with Dr Sant and Dr Vella were unsuccessful.

Party whips David Agius and Joe Mizzi said all five MPs were excused for their absence on Wednesday.

Although no division was called on Wednesday, the session was considered to be extremely important, since parliament, the country’s highest institution, had to confirm the appointment of the President of the Republic.

But Mr Parnis said he did not need to be there since the House was going to approve the choice of President unanimously.

Asked about other Wednesday sessions, he said: “I cannot be on television and in parliament at the same time. When a vote has to be taken, I do my best to make other arrangements for the programme. Besides, we do sometimes agree to pair votes (between MPs of both sides of the House).”

But pairing has been a contentious issue between the government and the opposition since the beginning of this term, and no agreement has been reached.

To be fair, other MPs are regularly absent from parliamentary sessions, but Mr Parnis’ Wednesday evening television programme brings up a number of issues.

MPs receive a regular salary of more than e1,200 a month to do what many consider to be a part-time job, with holidays in summer, at Eastertime, at Christmastime and, this year, even when Carnival was held.

MPs have three evening sessions to attend (sessions are held on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and extraordinary sessions are held occasionally), and prepare speeches and parliamentary questions. Some MPs also sit on parliament’s eight committees.

Asked if Mr Parnis is always excused whenever he does not attend Wednesday sessions, Mr Mizzi said that was an internal party issue. “All I am saying is that he was excused for this Wednesday’s session,” he said.

But MPs are elected to parliament by the people, and get their salary from the people’s tax money.

If they fail to attend parliamentary sessions for reasons such as Mr Parnis’, how are people expected to take parliament seriously, and to really treat it as the country’s highest institution?