I was intrigued by the events in the House last week, during the discussion on the motion regarding approval of the contract for the power station moved by the Labour Party. I would have thought that after 18 years in power and practically 20 in opposition, the PL would have been more conducive to respecting individual will and intellect.

While the smoke surrounding the whole power station issue subsides, I cannot bring myself to understand how a democratic party like the PL cannot learn to accept the fact that in Parliament people are expected to express their will not their mistakes. When observing voting patterns in the CoE and the EP abroad on several occasions, I noticed that there is an interval for voting and during this interval people can rectify their mistake electronically until the vote is closed. It is easy to make mistakes in Parliament, especially when it comes to a counter amendment of the motion that is being voted on, as there often is. What we should all be interested in is the intention of the representatives’ votes not their genuine mistakes, and if the PL is out to claim victory on a genuine MP’s mistake rather than on the intention of the majority of the MPs in the House, then I am led to understand that they have learnt nothing from the past and are still only interested in ramming their partisan opinion down people’s throat, which was one of the MLP’s biggest weaknesses in the past.

I am of course aware of the rulings delivered by the Speaker during the 1996-1998 legislature and I can only say that I disagree with those. Both Francis Agius and Edwin Grech then, should have been allowed to rectify their vote according to their real intention, as they were both obviously committing genuine mistakes. The Speaker then ruled otherwise. With Mr Mintoff it was also obvious that his will was entirely reflected in his vote when the MLP-run government was brought down in the no confidence motion moved in 1998. But it is said that one Speaker’s ruling can be overturned by another Speaker’s ruling.

I propose that MPs should have the opportunity to change their vote when they realise that they have committed a genuine mistake by moving a point of order immediately after the calling of names during a vote, but before a vote result is called by the Speaker. In a democracy where the will of the electorate is represented in the House majority, which is usually between one and rarely five in Malta, common sense calls for no less than humane reasoning. Otherwise, proper government becomes untenable and governments can come and go by MPs mistakes rather than their real will. That this should not be so is not only common sense but also intellectual honesty.

Dr Michael Asciak MD

BIRKIRKARA