Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday suggested holding local council and European Parliament elections on the same day to reduce political campaigning.

Speaking in Nadur, Dr Muscat admitted that one of the main messages from the EP election which took place last week was that the Maltese were suffering campaign fatigue, with the country almost constantly in campaign mode.

With this in mind, he asked whether the time was right to hold EP and local council elections on the same day.

It is time for the different elections to be brought together, saving time, money and energy

This would also save the country money as it spent over €1 million a year for different elections.

“It is time for the different elections to be brought together, saving time, money and energy,” he said, adding that people had had enough of political campaigning and wanted the government to focus on its work.

The proposal would mean that the next round of elections for half the 68 local councils would see councillors elected for the normal four-year term while the rest, which had their elections last year, would see their term extended by two years to 2019 to coincide with the next round of EP elections.

Reacting to this idea, Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Arnold Cassola said this “could make sense”, although it had to be studied further to see the pros and cons.

“We have never discussed it as a party but prima facie I do not see anything wrong with discussing it, as it is something which could make sense,” he said.

However, he said this would mean extending the term for local councils to five years after it was increased from three to four years a year ago.

“Is a five-year mandate too long for local councils? Could it discourage people from the commitment? These are the things we should be discussing when weighing whether we should go for it,” he said.

A spokesman for the Nationalist Party failed to reply when asked for the PN’s initial reaction to the proposal.