The Democratic Party is to boycott Tuesday afternoon's parliamentary sitting which will see former minister George Vella nominated to become President.

The Nationalist Opposition has said it will back the nomination, although it said it would have preferred a nominee who did not come from the Labour Party.

The PD said that while in welcomed Dr Vella, its two MPs would not be present for the debate since the government had not shown goodwill to amend the Constitution for the head of state to be appointed by a two-thirds majority.

“Malta has a dysfunctional democracy and Presidents of the Republic in their majority have been mere figureheads in their relative silence,” party leader Godfrey Farrugia said.

Presidents must be given the necessary powers to ensure good governance, he said, adding that a Council of State should be set up to advise the President. 

Dr Vella is due to be sworn in on Thursday morning. 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.