SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2011 By MARTINA SAID
Refusal to publish the cohabitation bill before Saturday's divorce referendum indicates that the bill will not regularise the situation of people who were once married and are now separated and living with a new partner.
The Independent reports that the cohabitation law being discussed within government will not include provisions for the regularisation of cohabiting couples if one or both were previously married, unless a divorce law existed.
While the Nationalist Party is being conservative against the introduction of divorce, it is drafting a liberal law that would regularise same-sex relationships, as well as situations in which people of the same family live in the same house, the same newspaper says.
The only way cohabiting couples could regularise their situation is if divorce was introduced, as otherwise, formalising a relationship in which one or both partners had previously been married would be the closest call to legalising bigamy.
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