President George Abela yesterday called for his successor to be appointed after a wide consensus involving all political forces rather than be chosen by the Prime Minister.
In his Republic Day address, Dr Abela, whose term ends in April, said the time had come “to revise” the procedure “to make the best possible choice”.
“Political reality is that, many times, the choice to appoint a new President rests with the Prime Minister, who enjoys Parliament’s majority. This, although in line with the Constitution, is not necessarily aimed at searching for the best candidate,” Dr Abela said.
It would “be wiser”, he said, if the choice was made through a wide consensus “within a framework of genuine exchanges... to ensure that the chosen person will be acceptable to all parties”.
Dr Abela, a former Labour Party deputy leader who had been nominated by the Nationalist government, lauded his own appointment as being “unprecedented”.
Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil has been urging the Prime Minister to nominate a person from the Nationalist camp to serve as President.
The annual Republic Day honours ceremony had its share of controversy when author Alex Vella Gera declared on social media he had turned down his nomination for a Midalja għal Qadi tar-Repubblika.
Mr Vella Gera had written a controversial fiction short story published in a University students’ newspaper and faced the prospect of jail under obscenity laws. The saga stirred a national movement on censorship.
Mr Vella Gera told Times of Malta that his refusal was based on the fact that he did not want to receive any honours from the “Maltese political class”, which, bar a few exceptions here and there, “has harmed the country”.
The editor of the same newspaper, Mark Camilleri, who had also risked jail, has since been appointed chairman of the National Book Council. He was also nominated to receive the same national award as Mr Vella Gera but he failed to turn up at the ceremony, saying later that he had forgotten about it.
Gaia Cauchi, winner of the Junior Eurovision 2013, became the youngest citizen ever to receive a Republic Day honorary award. She shared her Midalja għal Qadi tar-Repubblika with her “winning team”.