Mixed reactions to UHM's local elections proposal

The Nationalist Party and Alternattiva Demokratika yesterday welcomed comments by Union Haddiema Maghqudin general secretary Gejtu Vella, who on Sunday called on all political parties to "come together, rise above partisanship" and engage in talks that would eliminate the need to hold local elections every year.

Mr Vella suggested that the general and local elections should be held together.

However, Labour leader Alfred Sant said elections were a "financial drain" on both the country and the political parties, but he disagreed with the idea that the elections should be held together every five years.

"That would be too much of a big bang," he said when contacted.

Asked whether he felt talks should be held about the issue, Dr Sant said such talks were not on the MLP's agenda at the moment.

PN general secretary Joe Saliba welcomed the UHM's idea. He, too, agreed elections were a financial drain on both the country and the political parties.

"I agree with the UHM that local elections should not be lifted to a national level and hence the campaigns should not be so aggressive. We have realised this and toned down our own campaigns. We are even having a rather low key campaign for the European Parliament elections.

"We have mail shots and bill boards and weekly press conferences, but we do not have mass meetings in mind, as the MLP has declared," Mr Saliba said.

Mr Saliba said elections cost the country some half a million liri annually.

"One could argue this is the price we pay for democracy, but, yes, we should engage in talks to create a system that helps the country return to normality," Mr Saliba said.

AD chairman Harry Vassallo said he "agreed in spirit but not on a technical level" with Mr Vella's proposal.

"It is very correct to say local councils should not be the playing field for political parties on a national scale. But what the UHM is proposing, having them together, would actually make it worse.

"Local council elections will either be caught in the maelstrom of the general election campaign if they are made to coincide with the general election, or, if carried out midway in a legislature, will be taken as a political expression of the people.

"One could spread them out to take place on a monthly basis, and because parties cannot cope with such a campaign, the elections will really be at local level.

"Being on village level, there will be no need for counting halls and party agents.

"One can use ID cards and count votes locally. There will not be the hysteria surrounding general elections.

"The savings would be enormous. Elections cost a lot of money. It is scandalous that we spend Lm150,000 just to distribute voting documents when ID cards are good enough for such purposes," Dr Vassallo said.

"But I fully support the UHM on the point it has made: we have to defuse elections," he said.