President George Abela has not answered questions over whether he will sign the divorce Bill once approved in Parliament.

Questions sent to his office on Tuesday, following the referendum outcome, have remained unanswered.

Dr Abela has steered clear of the divorce debate ever since Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando presented a divorce Bill out of the blue last July.

Asked about the matter after the divorce Bill was presented to Parliament, Dr Abela preferred not to comment.

When he was a contender in the Labour Party’s leadership race, in May 2008, he had spoken about the subject in somewhat vague terms.

He had told The Sunday Times: “We need a clear strategy for minorities like gay rights, cohabitation rights and the issue of divorce. We need to have a clear distinction between the Church’s moral stand and the rights and civil obligations of our reality.

“As a progressive party in the EU, we can’t ignore these realities. As a party we need to start a serious discussion. However, we must always take into consideration the need to strengthen the family.”

Since then, Dr Abela has stressed the important of traditional marriage.

To date there has never been a case where a President refused to sign a law, which requires his assent.

Last year former President Eddie Fenech Adami and his two predecessors, the late Guido de Marco and Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, were asked by The Sunday Times if they would have signed a divorce law while they were still in office.

Prof. de Marco made it clear he was against divorce, but said his personal view should not be a determining factor in the matter, while Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the introduction of divorce would harm the state and that he preferred not to answer a hypothetical question.

Dr Fenech Adami had said: “I’m against having a law on divorce, but if I’m in an institutional position, such as that of the President, you naturally have to respect the people’s mandate, except if it’s a serious matter of values.”