Labour councillor calls for change in election of mayors

Floriana Labour councillor Brian Zammit, who polled the highest number of votes in the last round of local elections, is insisting that the law governing local councils should be amended to ensure that whoever polls the highest number of votes becomes mayor.

As the law stands, the person netting the highest number of votes is elected mayor only if his/her party has a majority of councillors, otherwise it is the councillors who elect the mayor.

"It was the Nationalist Party that insisted on majority rule in the past and everyone understood that.

"In Floriana, there should be no discrimination and this rule should apply too. I feel it was the Labour Party's right to lead the council because, apart from the amount of votes I polled, the party got 49.5 per cent of the vote.

"If you put the PN and independent votes together, they do not represent the majority of voters. The elected councillors did not even get as many votes as I did," he said.

There were 1,947 registered voters in Floriana in the election last March. The MLP polled 49.5 per cent, the PN 31.9 per cent and independent candidates 18.7 per cent.

"This time round, Nigel Holland was elected because of the way votes were inherited, and this worked in his favour by a very narrow margin," Mr Zammit said.

Contacted for his reaction, Mr Holland, who was elected as councillor on an independent ticket and who, on Monday, was elected mayor after being nominated by PN candidates, said that in Floriana it is quite common for an independent councillor to be elected mayor because the political parties get two councillors each.

"It is an open secret that it works that way. We never contest the elections with the illusion of getting a large number of votes," he said.

"This has happened before. Elections for mayor always creates friction. But I intend working for the locality. I can assure you it does not depend on me if there is friction.

"In Floriana, the MLP has had a relative majority for a long time. When I was elected mayor six years ago, I had voted for a Labour deputy mayor. I was then criticised by the PN. I am now being criticised by the MLP," Mr Holland said.