PL 'to listen' to voters' message

The Labour Party was committed to listen to the message voiced by voters in individual towns and villages during the local council elections, party leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.

Residents in areas such as Rabat, Msida, Sannat, Birkirkara and Għarb showed "signs of an important change" in their voting pattern as they shifted more towards Labour, he said.

However, he stressed, his party could not ignore the message of localities like San Ġwann, Pietà and Mtarfa where the party lost its majority. "We are open to listening to these messages to once again get close to the people in these localities... We will listen to those who voted PN (Nationalist Party) and Alternattiva Demokratika and to those who did not vote," he told a press conference.

His call to lend an ear to the public echoed the words of Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi who, on Sunday, said the government had to be more sensitive to what people were feeling that the "intelligent electorate" had sent a clear message.

However, according to Dr Muscat, Dr Gonzi had not learnt anything from his party's defeat in the local council and European Parliament elections. The PN was trying to spin the local council elections into a victory since it had gained six seats.

It was detrimental to the country to have a Prime Minister who was not willing to listen to the clear message, he said.

During the local council elections, Labour polled 55 per cent of votes cast against the PN's 44 per cent, both one percentage point more than in 2006. The percentages echoed those of the European Parliament elections where the PL secured a 54 per cent majority.

Labour, however, still had one less councillor while the PN managed to get six more elected when compared to the 2006 elections in the same localities.

Dr Muscat yesterday said he was very satisfied with the results especially because they showed voters believed more and more in the progressive movement - the Labour party.

He was particularly glad that a quarter of Labour's elected councillors were women and a third were young people. He also noted that, for the first time, the party had obtained a second seat in the Mġarr council.

Given that this year the turnout of voters was greater than in the previous election, Labour felt a bigger responsibility. Now the elections were over, partisan matters had to be put aside and councillors were to work in the interest of their locality, he said.