The government's highly controversial magisterial inquiry reform bill passed a third reading stage vote in parliament on Wednesday, with 37 MPs voting in favour, and 30 voting against.

The Nationalist Party voted against the bill.

Earlier on Tuesday, the reform had cleared the committee stage.

The bill has received much criticism for removing citizen's right to directly petition a magistrate to open an inquiry. With the bill coming into law, individuals will now need to file a police report first, and will only have the option to go to the Courts to decide if a magisterial inquiry should be held after six months have lapsed after filing their report.

Justice Minister Jonathan Attard has stated that the intention of the reform is to make the magisterial inquiry process more responsible.

In protest of the bill, a number of NGOs, including Repubblika, Occupyjustice, Fondazione Falcone, Aditus, and the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation organised a protest outside of parliament at the same time that the motion was being voted on.

The NGOs had stated that the bill in question "removes a right that citizens currently have to directly request a magisterial inquiry into crimes ignored by the police and the Attorney General".

The NGOs said that enacting the bill into law goes against democracy, against the rule of law, and against the Constitution of Malta.