Labour MP Ramona Attard has taken issue with the reason behind the appointment of a woman to a top Nationalist Party post, saying women should be appointed for their competence and not as a "tick the box" exercise.

Her comment can however be interpreted as going against the gender-corrective mechanism introduced by the Labour government - with the PN also voting in favour - to elect as many women as possible.

Following the last election, 12 women were given seats in Parliament in spite of not being elected. Attard herself was handed a seat in Parliament in a co-option following the resignation of Randolph Debattista.

In a post on Facebook, Attard was referring to the appointment of Sabine Agius Cabourdin as PN CEO. When he introduced her, PN leader Alex Borg said that he made the appointment after noticing that there were only men around the table during his recent meeting with Prime Minister Robert Abela, and decided that the new CEO should be a woman.

Attard said that "contrary to what the Opposition Leader said, women should be there because of their competence, not because of the 'tick the box' exercise."

Attard said since she knows Sabine well - they were in the same University course - she does not believe in the reason given by Borg as if it was a "tick the box" exercise for the PN to have women in top positions.

She said the Labour Party always believed in women's contributions and the three female presidents of the republic came from the Labour flank. "We also have an equal number of men and women as members of the judiciary, a woman as an Attorney General," Attard said, adding that she had also served as the first woman president of the PL.

She said she believed that women should be appointed for the competence not as a tick the box exercise.