The 2015 and 2017 elections should go ahead as scheduled while a consultation process on how local councils could be strengthened and improved should get underway, the Nationalist Party said this morning.

General secretary Chris Said told a news conference this morning that in cancelling the elections, the government was playing around with democracy.

People’s right to vote was sacrosanct, he said, adding that contrary to what the government was saying the elections were being cancelled and not postponed.

He said that while Minister Owen Bonnici had claimed that the decision was due to funding, as the elections would have cost €2 million, the government found an additional €100 million to finance its big cabinet and €4.3 million for Cafe Premier.

Dr Said said that when Dr Bonnici realised that his funding argument did not hold water, he blamed voter fatigue.

However, this did not exist in Malta unlike in other EU countries. This could be seen from the turnout, which locally was an average of 70 per cent.

Dr Said also said that the consultation process launched was creating uncertainty.

Asked whether he believed elections were being cancelled because of the hunting referendum, he said he did not know what Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had in mind.

However, elections should never be cancelled with a political calculation in mind. Although the elections did not suit the Nationalist Party because of its recent results and the ongoing restructuring, it believed that everyone’s right to vote was sacrosanct and had to be safeguarded.

Councils spokesman David Agius said still did not have a copy of the Bill on which consultation was underway.

GOVERNMENT ACTING IN COUNTRY'S BEST INTERESTS

In proposing to postone the 2015 and 2017 council elections, the government was not seeking the interests of the Labour Party but of the country, it said in a statement.

The government said it was looking positively at the consultation process as this would give the best opportunity for the country to have the best and most fair solution.

Dr Said himself admitted that it did not suit the Nationalist Party to have elections in May and this showed that the government was acting in the country’s best interests, the government said.

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