Chief Justice: Government to present bill to establish anti-deadlock mechanism

The government on Monday will present a bill aimed to establish an anti-deadlock mechanism in situations when the two sides of the House do not come to terms on the appointment of a Chief Justice, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced Saturday.

This follows an opening to the idea by the Opposition Leader Alex Borg earlier today.

In a post on Facebook, Abela said that last month he had spoken about the need to have this mechanism to counter lack of agreement on the new chief justice.

The government and Opposition have been locked in a dispute for several weeks after they failed to agree on a nomination, which needs a two-thirds majority in Parliament for it to be accepted.

The government earlier this month tried to push through the nomination of Judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera, but the Opposition voted against. It later also proposed Judge Miriam Hayman, but the PN did not agree either.

The Opposition also presented a list of names, including that of Judge Wenzu Mintoff, but Abela rejected the idea. In a letter to the Cabinet which was made public this week, Mintoff said that Abela did not want him as Chief Justice as he did not want to be seen to be bowing to the Opposition.

This morning, Borg said he was open to the idea of an anti-deadlock mechanism, with the Prime Minister responding that on Monday the government will be presenting a bill to this effect.

In this way, the PM said, the appointment of the Chief Justice will not take longer than necessary.

 

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