PN local election candidates urged to boost social aspect

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday called on the party's candidates for local elections to work to strengthen the social aspect in their locality, to see how councils could give an economic boost and to continue giving importance to the environment.

He asked them to give education a priority, to work in councils in a sensitive manner for the benefit of their locality, to work in a voluntary way with a sense of responsibility and in an accountable manner.

Dr Gonzi was speaking during the presentation of the party's 125 candidates who include 34 women and 34 youths for the June 12 local elections. Fifty-two of the candidates are councillors.

Dr Gonzi said councillors should appreciate the responsibility people were placing on them and respect it.

The candidates had the special privilege of being the first to be contesting such elections as European citizens, he said.

Councillors, he said, should look ahead courageously and with determination so that they could continue to work for the benefit of families in their locality.

Deputy leader Tonio Borg, who is the minister responsible for local councils, said the fact that local elections were being held together with the EP elections had a particular significance since one of the main principles of the EU was subsidiarity. Local councils were introduced by the PN which believed in the principle of subsidiarity and wanted to decentralise power.

The EU the party and its members worked for would be advantageous to councils. Malta now had full rights in the committee of regions and the five Maltese representatives on this committee were chosen recently. Local Councils Association president Ian Micallef was one of the deputy presidents of this committee, Dr Borg said.

Party general secretary Joe Saliba said this was a special year because it was the year in which the Maltese became European citizens, the local elections were being held on the same day as those of the European parliament and it was the 10th anniversary since councils were set up.

Many people, he said, had contested the elections with the aim of giving a service to residents of their locality. Just by contesting the elections one would already be giving a service.

Mr Saliba said that over the past years councils were given Lm90 million to administer and they were now being asked to indicate the roads which most urgently needed doing in their locality.

The PN, Mr Saliba added, had over the years presented 1,533 candidates, including 769 since 1999 when the MLP started contesting. The MLP presented 645 candidates.