Deputy Chairman of Committees Frederick Azzopardi used his casting vote twice as the House of Representatives tied 34-34 in a vote on two opposition amendments to a clause in the Mepa Reform Bill, which was being considered in committee stage.
Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando was absent from the Chamber. He is abroad on government business.
Mr Azzopardi voted against two amendments moved by Leo Brincat so that the clause was retained in its original form.
The vote was taken at 11 p.m. after the opposition managed to convince Mr Azzopardi, that a vote first called last week, had to be taken today in terms of a procedural motion.
The issue cropped up at 9 p.m. when opposition whip Joe Mizzi, said that according to Standing Orders, the vote had to been taken at the end of the day's business.
Government whip David Agius said he and Mr Mizzi had reached a gentleman's agreement that the vote would be taken at another sitting which had to be agreed between them. Since then the issue had not been discussed.
Mr Mizzi said the minutes and the recording of the House Business Committee meeting did not mention such an arrangement and, in any case, it was Standing Orders which counted.
Mr Agius said Mr Mizzi and himself had made this gentleman's agreement. If Mr Mizzi now wanted to go by Standing Orders and ignore previous agreements, the decent thing to do would have been for him to say so.
The Speaker suspended the sitting to give a ruling.
The sitting resumed at 10.25. Speaker Michael Frendo said that since no record of the agreement existed, the Chair had to apply the procedural motion and the vote, therefore, had to be taken there and then.
Leader of the House Tonio Borg said that according to the procedural motion, notice of the vote had to be given on the Order Paper. That had not happened. Neither had the opposition given notice that it was withdrawing from the agreement reached.
The Speaker said he had delivered his ruling.
Dr Borg said the ruling was whether the agreement or the procedural motion applied. In the ruling, it was said that the procedural motion applied. In terms of the ruling, notice of the vote had to be given on the Order Paper and the vote had to be taken on Wednesday morning.
Mr Mizzi said the ruling applied to the whole procedure.
The Speaker said that notice could not be given since the Chair had only just been informed that the agreement no longer existed. However, in terms of the ruling, the House now had to meet in committee for the vote to be taken.
The vote was taken and the opposition amendment was defeated. The opposition called a division. As the chairman, Mr Azzopardi, declared that the vote would be taken in 20 minutes' time. Dr Borg protested amid uproar that in terms of the procedural motion, the vote could not be taken at this time and had to be taken on Wednesday morning.
Mr Mizzi said that once the Chair had declared that the vote would be taken, it had to be taken. Furthermore, the procedural motion said the vote had to be taken within a week and that week had now expired.
Commenting to The Times after the sitting was over, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said that from now on the opposition would not be trusted as it had gone back on its word about the Mepa vote agreement.
"The opposition has decided to use Parliament for its own games while ignoring the country's interest," Dr Gonzi said.