Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday defended the decision of the head of the civil service to grant two months’ leave of absence to the deputy Cabinet Secretary to campaign against divorce, saying divorce was not a matter of political partisanship but one of personal conscience.

Dr Gonzi was answering a question in Parliament by Labour MP Leo Brincat, who had asked if he felt that the decision in such a delicate and sensitive moment of the campaign amounted to a serious lack of ethics.

Mr Brincat said that, irrespective of the outcome of the referendum, this person who was supposed to enjoy general public confidence because of its post would be discredited by one part or the other of the Maltese public for having chosen to publicly show a lack of impartiality in a hot public issue.

Dr Gonzi said the head of the civil service had already publicly stated that his decision had been based on his opinion that this was not a matter of political partisanship but one of personal conscience. The rules on political participation by public officials did not apply in the case of the divorce referendum.

Meanwhile, Communications Minister Austin Gatt told Labour MP Gino Cauchi that in the first four months of this year, 21 divorces obtained overseas had been registered by the Public Registry.

The countries where the divorces were obtained included the UK (10), Australia (five), and one each from New Zealand, the US, Syria, Germany, Denmark and the Isle of Man.

Answering other PQs by Mr Cauchi, Dr Gatt said 191 separations had been registered in the same four months: 37 in January, 19 in February, 94 in March and 41 in April.

As regards registered marriages, there had been two Church and 23 civil marriages in January, four and 21 in February, 33 and 13 in March and 44 and 36 in April.

Dr Gatt pointed out that all Church marriages were also civil marriages.