Counting agents will visit the counting hall once every five years if the proposal for local council elections goes through. Photo: Darrin Zammit LupiCounting agents will visit the counting hall once every five years if the proposal for local council elections goes through. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

A consultation process on the government’s proposal to postpone local council elections until 2019 was formally launched yesterday with the Local Government Minister giving very little details on the mechanics.

Noting the four-week consultation period ended on September 27, Owen Bonnici insisted the planned move would not undermine democracy and would cut costs and electoral fatigue.

He strongly refuted claims that the proposal was in any way linked to the hunting referendum, which will probably be held in March.

Dr Bonnici said the government was going in for the consultation phase “in good faith”, aiming to listen to people’s opinions on the proposal.

His reading of the reactions so far was that while there was agreement that local council elections are held every five years, there was disagreement on the manner in which this would come about. The government had “taken note” of the opinions expressed since the idea was first floated.

When asked what exactly the government was proposing, Dr Bonnici said he would rather wait to see what the people had to say throughout the consultation period.

The government was committed to consulting local councillors from the Nationalist Party, the Labour Party and Alternattiva Demokratika as well as the Local Councils’ Association and members of the Vote 16 campaign. A decision would then be taken as soon as possible in view of the council elections scheduled for March.

I do not think that councils or democracy will be weakened

The idea was to hold local elections concurrently with the European elections, which are due next in 2019. This means that some councils will have their three-year term more than doubled, serving for as long as seven years this time round.

When asked about fears expressed that postponing elections could undermine both the local government system and democracy, Dr Bonnici said: “I do not think that councils or democracy will be weakened. We would save about €2.5 million per round of elections. But it’s not about the cost because democracy has no price.”

The idea had first been floated by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat following the March MEP elections. He had said it would ease electoral fatigue and increase electoral participation.

In his first reaction, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil had accused the government of resorting to this measure in a bid to undermine the spring hunting referendum called by over 40,000 people who signed a petition.

Dr Bonnici yesterday insisted this was not the case, pointing out there was a referendum law which the government intended to respect.

The government has enacted a law lowering the voting age in local elections from 18 to 16, which means that if the postponement plans go through, the new voting age will not come into effect before 2019. But for Dr Bonnici this was not the point. The point was that Labour had promised those aged 16 the right to vote in local elections and it had kept its word.

“If there is a council that is dissolved before 2019, then they would be able to vote,” he said.

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