The next president

April 4 is fast approaching, and the bets are on who will be the next president. Indeed, the leading bookmakers would have a field day in taking the odds.

We can’t possibly give names because we don’t know who the potential candidates will be at the time, and the best we can do is guess at possible individuals who stand to make it to the finish line. After that, no one has any idea who our president will be.

We might even have an embarrassment of choice. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

But that’s okay. We do know it’ll be who the country, nay, the House of Representatives, votes for.

It has been reported that ‘cordial’ discussions are ongoing between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition but, apparently, no agreement on a particular name has been reached.

The consensus now required between the government and the opposition for the appointment of the president has the potential to turn the presidential election into a complex political negotiation or another prolonged deadlock.

Such a scenario would surely create a constitutional crisis, the likes of which we have never experienced.

Some might argue and suggest that the names mentioned by both the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party are the best the country can hope for when it comes to a head of State. The people couldn’t possibly make a better choice. Or can they?

Some even argue that voters are so juvenile and silly that we’ll vote for whatever celebrity is the flavour of the month. Peppi Azzopardi and Salvu Mallia have often (and unfairly?) been touted as arguments against letting the voters choose.

Such unlikely and not-to-be names apart, anyone with an average intelligence quotient can come up with a list of names of individuals suitable to occupy this prestigious, albeit ceremonial, office.

There is no scarcity of suitable candidates from whom to make a sensible and worthy choice. We might even have an embarrassment of choice. More than one former serving judge in our superior courts would be suitable for the post but, for some reason or another, article 48 of the constitution does not permit it while permitting it for a magistrate who has served in our courts.

At the end of the day, one can only augur that whoever is finally chosen as our president will truly be someone who is intelligent and has knowledge of constitutional law, the ability to speak coherently and use a vocabulary that elicits respect, an even temperament and strength of character.

Mark Said – Msida