Speaker Michael Frendo will not reveal where his casting vote will go if today’s parliamentary motion of no-confidence in the Transport Minister produces a draw.

“This is not something I can pre-judge or discuss,” Dr Frendo said.

Transport Minister Austin Gatt’s fate will be decided by the Speaker’s casting vote if Nationalist backbencher Franco Debono abstains on the opposition’s motion of no-confidence and the resulting vote is a tie.

The vote is expected tonight after a whole-day debate on what the Labour Party has described as “a chaotic and disastrous” public transport reform.

The motion calls for the resignation of Dr Gatt, all political appointees linked to the reform and Transport Malta’s top management.

Dr Frendo said he would be making up his mind on how to vote if and when the eventuality rises. “A Speaker casts his vote in accordance with traditions, customs and rules of our Parliament and so I would not like to say yes, no or maybe,” he said.

The vote of no confidence has taken on wider significance after Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said the whole Cabinet was “assuming political responsibility” for the reform.

Dr Gonzi has not clarified what he means, leaving others to question whether he will consider the motion to be one of no-confidence in the Cabinet as a whole.

Asked whether he will be seeking this clarification before tonight’s vote is taken, the Speaker said it did not fall within his remit.

“This is a Constitutional issue and so I will never ask that question on any type of vote because it is beyond my remit,” Dr Frendo said, adding his job was to look at procedures and record the vote.

Constitutional law expert Austin Bencini has asked for clarity on the matter “to avoid the months of uncertainty that had gripped the country” in 1998. At the time, former Prime Minister and then backbencher Dom Mintoff had voted against his own party’s Cottonera project motion that was transformed into a vote of confidence in the Labour government led by Prime Minister Alfred Sant.

Writing in The Times yesterday, Dr Bencini said it was the Prime Minister’s responsibility to decide whether to transform the issue from one of individual responsibility involving Dr Gatt to one that put “the continuation of this Administration at stake”.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com