Justice Minister Owen Bonnici this afternoon confirmed that the government will be floating the idea of postponing all local elections to 2019 to coincide with the next European Parliament election.

Dr Bonnici said this when asked about remarks made yesterday in Parliament by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, who expressed himself completely against such a proposal.

Dr Busuttil argued that it would be anti-democratic to deny residents in local councils the right to vote for a long stretch, which in some cases would be of up to seven years.

He also argued that this would go against the move to allow 16-year-olds to vote in local council elections as they would end up voting at 21.

The Justice Minister confirmed that the government would be floating such an idea with all stakeholders, arguing that this would save money and improve turnout in local council elections.

Dr Bonnici welcomed the views expressed by the Opposition leader, and recounted how the Prime Minister had already expressed himself in favour of such as proposal in the aftermath of the last MEP elections in May.

The Justice Minister argued that one round of local council elections was costing between €2 and €2.5 million.

The minister said that he had given notice of a bill proposing the reforms to the Local Councils Act but did not clarify whether the 2019 elections idea would be included in the bill.