Malta's president should be appointed by a two-thirds majority in Parliament instead of a simple majority, constitutional lawyers said on Friday. 

Speaking during a debate as part of an annual Workers' Day conference organised by the UĦM Voice of the Workers, former European Commissioner Tonio Borg  and Constitutional lawyer Austin Bencini argued that the president should not be elected through a simple parliamentary majority. Instead, they insisted, the appointment as well as the removal of the head of state should be through a two-thirds majority. 

"With a simple majority, even if you have just 15 people in parliament on the day, you can elect or remove a president. In my opinion, the president should be elected with two-thirds majority," Dr Borg argued.

A similar call had been made by the Partit Demokratiku in January, with the party saying that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was on record saying that the next president would be appointed through a parliamentary resolution.   

On the argument that such a change could lead to problems if the two sides failed to come to an agreement, Dr Borg said that if the rules were set in a way that did not allow for a 'Plan B', meaning there was no other option but to elect the president through the two-thirds majority, the two sides would eventually come to an agreement.

"Whenever this was introduced, it worked. We had other appointments, namely the Ombudsman, the Auditor General and now we also have the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, that are  elected by two-thirds majority and there haven't been any problems," Dr Borg insisted.