Divorce campaigner has doubts about overriding referendum clause

The former Nationalist MP who instigated the campaign to introduce divorce in Malta has expressed doubt at a government bid to slash the four-year waiting period after separation, to six months before one can get a divorce. 

In a Facebook post, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando commented wryly that the government might as well “do away with marriage” at news of the six-month waiting period for divorce. 

Asked to expand on his apparent misgivings, Pullicino Orlando said he was “only asking questions” at this point. 

“Referenda are the most reliable democratic tool when it comes to political decisions which will have a significant impact on our society. They give the electorate the opportunity to express itself on a single, important issue. Will our politicians feel as comfortable overturning other referendum results in the future? EU membership? Hunting? The divorce law in existence was supported by 53% of the electorate. 123,000 citizens gave their backing, specifically, to its salient features,” Pullicino Orlando said. 

Under new rules proposed by the government, a separated couple will be able to immediately apply for divorce, doing away with a four-year waiting period. In cases where a couple is not legally separated but there is mutual consent over divorce, the waiting period will be cut to six months instead of four years. 

The proposal also suggests a one-year waiting period instead of four years for couples with no legal separation where only one part wants a divorce. 

But government has also found a way to circumvent a requirement for these changes to be approved by a referendum, a provision that was introduced in 2011. The Bill suggests deleting the relevant clause in the law that mandated a referendum. “This is legally possible because parliament will be asked to amend ordinary legislation that introduced the referendum condition by having that particular clause removed,” Equality Parliamentary Secretary Rosianne Cutajar told MaltaToday. 

People voted for divorce in a hotly-contested referendum in 2011 that eventually paved the way for parliament to approve legislation. The four-year separation period had been one of the conditions for divorce listed in the referendum question. 

Practitioners in the field of family law have questioned the necessity of the four-year waiting time, which in many cases prolonged the suffering and inconvenience for couples. 

Malta’s 2011 legislation, including the four-year wait, was modelled on the Irish divorce law. However, last year, Ireland also cut the waiting period from four years to two.