The government has failed to achieve the two-thirds majority in parliament that it needs to appoint its handpicked standards commissioner.

When the first vote was taken on Wednesday, 41 MPs voted in favour and 30 voted against. The required number of votes needed for the motion to go through was 53.

The result was expected. The government and opposition have failed to agree on the nomination of former chief justice Joe Azzopardi as the new standards czar.

The position has been vacant since September after George Hyzler was nominated to serve on the EU’s court of auditors.

Prime Minister Robert Abela has claimed that Opposition leader Bernard Grech agreed to Azzopardi being nominated for the role only to then change his mind. But Grech denies there was any such agreement.

The PN opposition had proposed former judge Joseph Zammit McKeon for the role. 

Abela told parliament on Monday that the opposition’s claims about Azzopardi’s lack of efficiency in the law courts were “baseless”.

He said Azzopardi’s track record as chief justice was better than those of his predecessors, whom Abela described as having been part of the “establishment” favoured by the opposition.

The disagreement left the position vacant.

To solve the impasse, the government has pushed through an anti-deadlock mechanism through which Azzopardi will be appointed by a simple parliamentary majority should two consecutive votes fail to result in a two-thirds majority backing his appointment.

The second vote will be taken on February 27.