Cospicua mayor forced to step down

Paul Muscat was forced to resign as mayor of Cospicua yesterday.

His alternative was to face a vote of no confidence from Labour councillors who, strangely, described the resignation as a "heartbreak" for them.

At an extraordinary meeting of the council yesterday nobody could give a proper explanation as to why Mr Muscat had to resign, though one Labour councillor told The Times that the time had come for Cospicua to have an MLP mayor.

Mr Muscat, originally elected as a Labour councillor, has been estranged from the MLP since the party's Vigilance and Disciplinary Board two years ago investigated allegations that he had tampered with the party vote which elected Alfred Sant leader in 1992.

The board subsequently decided that no vote tampering had taken place and went on to bar Mr Muscat from representing the party in any capacity. Since then, he has sat as independent mayor of Cospicua.

The Labour Party has wanted Mr Muscat to step down as mayor of a council where the party has its heartland, with five MLP councillors, apart from Mr Muscat, and just one Nationalist.

At yesterday's meeting, which was open to the media, Mr Muscat was clearly emotional and unsettled at the decision he had been forced to take:

"In the circumstances I have no choice but to resign as mayor, since I believe that I do not have the support of some of my colleagues," he said.

He said he would not go into the merits of why he resigned but was stepping down with a clear conscience.

"I did not do anything wrong to deserve a vote of no confidence. As far as I know, the local council door has been open to everyone, whether they were short or tall, blue or red."

Mr Muscat told the meeting he had heard an "excuse" that the vote of no confidence would be taken because he was squandering the council's money to help Cospicua residents.

"If that is the case it doesn't make me blush. If I have the chance I will do it again. The step I'm taking today is for the good of Cospicua," Mr Muscat said.

He thanked colleagues who clearly knew "in their conscience" that he had done nothing wrong.

"But if someone feels that his conscience has been pricked, that is up to him. I'm 55 years old and I thank God I am popular with the Cospicua people," Mr Muscat said.

Labour councillor Joe Scerri told the meeting he was sorry that Cospicua "had to end up in this situation".

"If there is someone who is trying to interpret Pawlu's resignation as reflecting badly on him, I will be the first to stick up for him. This resignation is a heartbreak for us.

"Pawlu worked in a genuine manner. What we did in the past we did because we believed in Pawlu. And what we did was not because we lost any trust in him."

The five MLP councillors had previously defied the party and would not take a vote against Mr Muscat.

Mr Scerri said he was sorry to read in The Times that some people in Cospicua believed Mr Muscat had been betrayed by his colleagues.

At this point, Mr Muscat intervened, taking to Mr Scerri's comments and saying he was surprised the other councillors were heaping praise on him and yet had threatened to pass a vote of no confidence in him.

When asked by reporters later, Mr Muscat said he did not know whether the threat of a vote of no confidence in him was a result of political pressure.

"I don't know. Direct the questions to them (the other local councillors). They know the reasons, not I. I never expected this."

When approached and asked what had led to the pressure to oust Mr Muscat, Mr Scerri said the time was ripe for Cospicua to have a Labour mayor. He denied that the Labour Party had sent for them to remove Mr Muscat from his mayor's post.

He would not reply to the question as to why the council was removing a mayor when there seemed to be broad consensus for him.

Councillors will elect a new mayor for Cospicua on Thursday at 6.30 p.m. His tenure will not be very long: Cospicua is among the localities where a local election will be held in March.