More women will be represented in Parliament if no more than two parties are elected after the next election as the House on Wednesday approved a corrective mechanism to ensure gender parity.
The Bill was approved from third reading with 63 votes for, two against.
The next step before the Bill becomes law is President George Vella’s approval.
Through the amendments, which will only come into force if two parties are elected to Parliament, if a gender gets less than 40% of the available seats, a maximum of 12 seats - six on either side of the House, can be added.
Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said this was a historical moment in local politics with both the government and the Opposition taking an important step towards equal representation in Parliament.
Eunice Grech Fiorini has been appointed chief executive of the Court Services Agency.
Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said she will continue to build on the work of Frank Mercieca, her predecessor.
She will take up the roll on May 1 and will be the first woman appointed to lead the agency in its history.
Grech Fiorini has worked in court for 23 years, serving as director, assistant registrar, deputy registrar, principal and clerk. She is a University of Malta graduate in legal studies and became a legal procurator in 2009.
Mercieca is being appointed consultant to the agency for a period so that his experience in the sector will continue to be used, the minister said while thanking him for his “impeccable” service.
Eunice Grech Fiorini appointed court director
Ms Grech Fiorini will take the post of Chief Executive within the Court Services Agency
8 April 2021, 11:57am
by Nicole Meilak
Eunice Grech Fiorini will be appointed chief executive of the Court Services Agency, replacing her predecessor Frank Mercieca.
Over the past 23 years, Grech Fiorini served as director, assistant registrar, deputy registrar, principal and clerk within the Law Courts.
Between 2014 and 2018 she served as an assistant registrar before being promoted as a director registrar from 2018 onwards.
She graduated from the University of Malta with a Bachelor s Degree in Legal Studies, and subsequently became a legal procurator in 2009.
Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech on Wednesday called on the government to withdraw the bill amending the Interpretation Act, saying the proposed amendment will take away the fundamental rights of the Maltese and Gozitans.
“The Nationalist Party will continue working to ensure that the rights of the Maltese and Gozitans are protected. We will not stand for such an amendment and call for the Bill to be scrapped immediately.”
Grech was speaking in Parliament during the debate on the Bill to amend the Interpretation Act.
The Nationalist Party called for the bill to be dropped after it was criticised by the Chamber of Advocates, constitutional experts, the dean of the Faculty of Law, former European Human Rights Court judge Giovanni Bonello, former attorney general and European Court judge Anthony Borg Barthet and former commissioner for laws and MP Franco Debono.
Imagine Moses climbing to the very top of the obscene Tumas-Gasan towers at Mrieħel. His task is to revisit the 10 commandments. Instead of stone tablets, he uses an electronic tablet to write on.
Given the secularisation of this cosmopolitan nation, Moses, instead of getting orders from a heavily bearded Lord dictating the Decalogue, tries to get inspiration from different sectors of the Maltese population.
What conflicting messages would he be bombarded with?
What follows is based on notes taken during the consultation process indulged in by Moses.
‘Thou shalt not criticise government’
This was the heartfelt desire of the Commissioner for NGOs. He has already decreed that if Repubblika dares to keep on criticising our benevolent government, they would be banished from the Garden of Eden (aka Register of NGOs). Criticism is a forbidden fruit and those who taste it do so at their own peril, was the North Korea style of reasoning.