(Adds PN's reaction)

Sliema mayor Nikki Dimech and councillor Sandra Camilleri this afternoon resigned from the Nationalist Party but retained their positions in the council.

The PN had asked Mr Dimech to resign from mayor following allegations he had admitted to taking a bribe from a contractor. Mr Dimech refused and the PN decided to kick Mr Dimech out of the party.

Speaking to the media just after submitting his resignation, Mr Dimech said he was resigning from the PN irrespective of the letter which had dismissed him from the party.

He insisted that he had nothing to hide and that he had not done anything wrong.

Mr Dimech said he could not work with the present administration of the Nationalist Party, clarifying that it was not the Prime Minister that was the problem but the party's "internal administration".

In his resignation letter address to PN general secretary Paul Borg Olivier, Mr Dimech reiterated that his resignation should not be interpreted as an admission of any wrongdoing.

“ I reiterate my complete innocence and my resentment to the fact that you personally have chosen to act as my accuser, prosecutor, judge and hangman all in one, and to pass summary judgement upon me in spite of the presumption of innocence," he wrote.

Shortly before Mr Dimech resigned, councillor Camilleri also submitted her resignation but pledged that she would always remain a Nationalist and as an independent councillor she would continue working for the benefit of her locality.

Councillor Camilleri, who is 63, claimed last week that she had been forced to sign a motion of no confidence in the mayor by PN general secretary Paul Borg Olivier.

PN’S REACTION

The Nationalist Party said in a statement there was no space within it for people who declared and admitted they had not acted in the correct manner.

It said that when a councillor admitted, out of his own will, that he did not act seriously and according to high ethical standards, admitting that he requested a commission for tenders, he no longer deserved to represent it in the community.

That was why it had dismissed Mr Dimech.

The PN said that Mr Dimech information the general secretary of his admission after he went out of the depot. On the following day, he had to meet the secretary general but did not attend for the meeting. He did not even reply to telephone calls and e-mails.

The PN had acted consistently in line with the principles and values of honesty and correctness which should serve as a basis for political work, it said.

The general secretary and his assistant categorically denied what Ms Camilleri alleged and said that their position was that she should act in line with the party’s code of ethics.

The PN reiterated that it expected every councillor to carry out his duties according to high ethical and moral standards.

Ms Camilleri said she was convinced Mr Dimech was innocent and that this was a political issue because the party wanted to get rid of Mr Dimech.

In comments to the press just after she submitted her resignation, Ms Camilleri said she believed Mr Dimech had been framed.

She said that a vote of no confidence motion was presented at the council, she would vote against.

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