In a year’s time, Malta should have a new President of the Republic.

We use the word “should”, not “will”, because it is not a given that this is going to happen by 4 April 2024.

Last week, in an exclusive interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, President George Vella expressed his fears that he will be asked to stay on in the role because no agreement would have been reached on who is to succeed him.

In Malta, presidents are appointed to serve for five years. Until 2019 – when Vella had been named as the country’s Head of State – a president was appointed via a simple majority in the House. Vella had received more support than that, as the Nationalist Party representatives had also voted in favour of his nomination. The two Partit Demokratiku MPs had boycotted the vote.

But things have changed since then and the next president will have to be appointed with a two-thirds majority in Parliament. If no agreement is reached between the two sides of the House, then the incumbent – in this case Vella – will be required to stay on in the role until a solution is found.

“I hope that there will be an agreement on a person so we don’t end up like we did in the matter of the Ombudsman,” President Vella said in the interview with this media house.

He was referring to how Ombudsman Anthony Mifsud stayed on for an extra 20 months until the government and Opposition came to terms on the appointment of his successor. This exposes how hard a situation can be and, it must be said, the appointment of a president is an even bigger decision than one for an Ombudsman, with all due respect to the latter position.

Added to this, we must also highlight the difficulties encountered in the appointment of the Standards Commissioner. A two-thirds majority was needed here too, but the government’s nominee was not accepted by the Opposition, with the result that the government was forced to change the law – without the Opposition’s support – to have the Standards Commissioner appointed via a simple majority on the third vote if no two-thirds majority was reached in the first two.

This cannot happen when it comes to the next president. As things stand now, “in any circumstance”, the person occupying the role of president is to “remain in office until the Resolution (to appoint a successor) is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds of all the members of the House”.

President Vella was appointed Head of State on 4 April 2018, and therefore we are less than one year away from the expiry of his term.

So far, except for the first president, Sir Anthony Mamo, all presidents came from politics. In chronological order, Anton Buttigieg, Agatha Barbara, Censu Tabone, Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, Guido de Marco, Eddie Fenech Adami, George Abela, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca and, now, George Vella had all served in governments and political parties. Even two acting presidents who served in the 1980s, Albert Hyzler and Paul Xuereb, had come from a political background.

They were hand-picked by the prime minister of the time and their nomination was pushed through Parliament, needing only a simple majority. In some cases, their nomination was approved by the whole Parliament. Only one president, George Abela, the current Prime Minister’s father, had come from the then party in Opposition.

Each time a president’s term is about to finish, there is talk on who the successor is going to be. And each time there are suggestions that he or she should not come from a political background. The reason for this is that politicians come with their baggage and there are always doubts as to whether moving from a partisan role to one that must be completely neutral is doable. History has told us that it is possible, as all presidents who have served this country have risen above partisan politics during their term in office.

Robert Abela has already shown that he is ready to move away from the norm. He has decided that, when President Vella is away, the role of acting president is taken over by the pro-rector of the University, Frank Bezzina, who has never had any links with any political party. Whether Abela will go the whole hog and “promote” Bezzina to president, or choose someone else from outside the political spectrum is, however, quite unlikely.

What is sure is that, before it is too late, the prime minister and the Opposition leader must reach common ground on who is to replace Vella. Although there are provisions which allow Vella to stay on until a replacement is approved by two-thirds of the House of Representatives, a lack of agreement would lead to a constitutional crisis.

Both sides should do their utmost to avoid this.