The person who will be Malta's next Police commissioner must ensure that police officers do their job, Opposition Leader Adrian Delia said in Parliament this evening.

Parliament was debating a bill regarding the appointment of Police Commissioners.

The Nationalist party has proposed a system of appointing the police commissioner through a two-thirds majority vote in parliament, he said.

Delia said that "we should recognize that this country is facing a number of issues. Thus, more interventions are needed in order to better the state of our country."

The government has had a change in leader, and although Prime Minister Robert Abela wants continuity and change for this country, we are not going back to normality with how things are currently being handled, Delia said.

He added that no one trusted or felt comfortable with the former police commissioner - Lawrence cutajar - except the government itself. "The government is saying that the Police Commissioner is going to be chosen by an independent authority, which ultimately means that this will not be a controlled process."

However, Delia said that in every stage of the decision-making process in terms of the appointment of the Commissioner, the Prime Minister will still have control in some way or another as he will be choosing someone else to make the decision for him. "Therefore, in reality the decision of who will be the next Police Commissioner will still be under the control of the government," Delia said.

The government said that they are handing the situation with complete transparency, however Delia believes this to be false. "The current situation in our country is so bad, that it does not give our citizens the peace of mind they deserve."

The Venice commission states that the Prime Minister should not be involved in such matters, Delia said, adding that this decision is being controlled solely by Abela. "This goes to show that the government is not aware of the differences in terms of the separation of power", he said.