Last updated 11.50 p.m.
The House of Representatives was tonight tied 34-34 in a vote on two Opposition amendments to a clause in the Mepa Reform Bill after Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando was absent from the Chamber. He is abroad on government business. The amendments were defeated after the chairman cast his vote against.
The Bill was being considered in committee stage.
The vote was taken at 11 pm after the Opposition managed to convince the Chairman of Committees, Nationalist MP Frederick Azzopardi, that a vote first called last week, had to be taken today in terms of a procedural motion. Leader of the House Tonio Borg had insisted that, also in terms of the motion, the vote could not be taken today because no notice was given.
After the chairman decided that voting should take place, the result was 34 in favour and 34 against. Mr Azzopardi retired to consider his casting vote.
The sitting resumed at 11.25 when Mr Azzopardi said that in terms of practice, he was casting his vote against the amendments so that the clause was retained in its original form.
UNEXPECTED VOTE
Tonight's issue cropped up two hours earlier, at 9 p.m. as the House was preparing to adjourn.
The whip of the Labour group, Joe Mizzi, said that in terms of a procedural motion approved some months ago, a vote on Opposition amendments to a clause of the Mepa Reform Bill should have been taken at the end of business (at 9 p.m.).
Government whip David Agius said he and Mr Mizzi had reached an agreement that the vote would be taken at another sitting which had to be agreed between them. Since then the issue had not been discussed.
Mr Mizzi said the minutes and the recording of the House Business Committee meeting did not mention such an arrangement, and in any case, it was Standing Orders which counted.
Mr Agius said Mr Mizzi and himself had made this gentleman's agreement. If Mr Mizzi now wanted to base himself on standing orders and ignore previous agreements, the decent thing would have been for him to say so before.
The Speaker, Michael Frendo, suspended the sitting at 9.10 p.m. to give a ruling.
The sitting resumed at 10.25. The Speaker said that since no record of the agreement existed, the Chair had to apply the procedural motion and the vote therefore had to be taken now.
Leader of the House Tonio Borg said that according to the procedural motion, notice of the vote had to be given on the Order Paper. That had not happened. Neither had the Opposition given notice that it was withdrawing from the agreement reached.
The Speaker said he had delivered his ruling.
Dr Borg said the ruling was about whether the agreement or the procedural motion applied. In the ruling, it was said that the procedural motion applied. In terms of the ruling, notice of the vote had to be given on the Order Paper and the vote, therefore, had to be taken on Wednesday morning.
Mr Mizzi said the ruling applied to the whole procedure.
The Speaker said that notice could not be given since the Chair had only just been informed that the agreement no longer existed.
Therefore, in terms of the ruling, the House now had to resolve itself into committee for the vote to be taken.
When the vote was taken the opposition amendment was defeated. The Opposition called a division. As the chairman declared that the vote would be taken in 20 minutes' time, Dr Borg protested, amid uproar, that in terms of the procedural motion, the vote could not be taken at this time and had to be taken on Wednesday morning.
Mr Mizzi said that once the Chair had declared that the vote would be taken, it had to be taken. Furthermore, the procedural motion said the vote had to be taken within a week and that week had now expired.
The chairman of committees, Frederick Azzopardi, decided that the vote would be taken in 20 minutes' time. When the vote was taken, the result was 34 votes in favour and 34 against. Mr Azzopardi then voted against the Opposition amendment, which was defeated. The same happened for a second Opposition amendment.
The House then adjourned normally.
The last time the Chair had to cast its vote was on December 14 last year when Nationalist MP Franco Debono was absent when the House voted on motions to set up new select committees. In that sitting, the then Speaker, Louis Galea had voted against amendments to the motIon by the Opposition. As is normal parliamentary practice, he then voted against the motion itself so that the debate could continue.