All MPs have no choice but to vote ‘yes’ to reflect the country’s nod to divorce when the vote in Parliament comes up, Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando tells The Sunday Times in an interview today.

Once the Prime Minister decided to take the divorce issue to the people, and after Parliament voted for the amendment stipulating a May 28 referendum, there was no way out, Dr Pullicino Orlando warns.

“It’s not up to our personal feelings any more… You can never, as a legislator, put your religious beliefs before the common good… I can’t accept our party doing a Pontius Pilate,” the MP says in a blunt interview, adding he would not even mull over the possibility of the Prime Minister voting against. 

The interview comes as a number of government MPs said they could abstain or even vote ‘no’ to divorce in Parliament, despite last week’s 53 per cent ‘yes’ vote.

He says the PN could have avoided the current embarrassment had it avoided taking an official anti-divorce stand in the first place and then campaigned for a ‘no’ vote.

Dr Pullicino Orlando said it would be a bitter pill to swallow for the thousands of Nationalists who voted in favour of divorce legislation to see the divorce Bill carried through simply because of the Labour Party’s parliamentary group.

While ruling out destabilising the government, Dr Pullicino Orlando says his party has done its utmost to weed out liberals like Louis Galea in recent years, ending up with several members of Cabinet who are out of touch with reality.

Watch excerpts of the interview with Herman Grech  above. Read the entire interview on today’s edition of The Sunday Times at:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110605/local/-MPs-cannot-vote-No-JPO.369037