Rule of law NGO Repubblika has written to President George Vella complaining about a lack of effective consultation on constitutional reform. 

It observed that six of 10 bills featuring constitutional changes demanded by the Venice Commission were passed through Parliament hastily and without effective consultation, something which even the commission had complained about. 

Comments by Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis in Monday’s Times of Malta further confirmed the government's lack of interest in effective consultation. 

The minister had rejected the commission's criticism of a lack of consultation, saying all personal opinions expressed on social media and blogs were taken into account.

"The government appears intent to push through the constitutional changes it wishes and leave out the ones that may restrain their unbridled wielding of power, without regard to civil society and hiding from the glare of independent media scrutiny,” Repubblika said.

“Our weak constitution and the abuse of the excessive powers of the executive, have generated the atmosphere of institutional paralysis and legal impunity that permitted ‘this clique that brought shame on our country’ (as described by the president on December 13 last year) to run riot with our country's dignity and the rights of its citizens,” the NGO said. 

“It is simply unacceptable and undemocratic to allow ministers to make their own judgement of what constitutes consultation,” it said, adding that “diluting to irrelevance the voice of citizens active in the area of democracy and the rule of law is an intended effect”.