Adds PN reaction

Nationalist councillor Cyrus Engerer has questioned the real reasons behind a motion presented by six councillors resisting his nomination to become Deputy Mayor of Sliema.

The motion was presented by former Mayor Nikki Dimech, the three Labour councillors on the council, councillor Sandra Camilleri, who recently resigned from the PN, and Edward Cuschieri, who is a PN councillor.

They argued that Mr Engerer lacked experience and maturity and the post should go to Mr Cuschieri.

Mr Engerer in a reaction said he believed that the Labour Party still had issues with trusting youths in certain positions, if it was true that the motion was presented because he was inexperienced and immature.

"I believe that they are in reality targeting me for other reasons and not the one mentioned in the motion itself. I say this because the PL chose Byron Camilleri to become Fgura Mayor and had no problem in Ian Borg being Dingli Mayor notwithstanding their age.

"These are the same people who were backing Nikki Dimech, a person who became Mayor when he was my age, 29 this month."

Mr Engerer said that whether an individual was inexperienced or experienced was an irrelevant issue. Mayors and deputy-mayors were elected through a democratic process and in this process Joanna Gonzi had the largest number of votes, while he won the second largest number of votes form the PN.

According to the law, the person with the highest number of votes from the party that achieves the absolute majority of seats within the Local Council became Mayor and so on and so forth.

Mr Engerer said he believed he was, furthermore, academically qualified for the post, having read a Masters degree in Political Science at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, and a Bachelors degree in European Politics from the University of Malta.

He did not comment about the fact that the motion was also signed by a PN councillor.

Mr Engerer had been set to take up the post in the 11-member council later this month after former deputy mayor, Joanna Gonzi, became Mayor with the ousting of Mr Dimech. Mr Engerer had won most votes at the last election after Ms Gonzi.

Mr Engerer, 28, was the one who presented the motion of no confidence which led to the ousting of Mr Dimech during the last council meeting.

Mr Dimech was dismissed from the Nationalist Party after admitting in a police statement that he solicited a bribe on a council tender, an admission he later said was made under duress.

PN STATEMENT

The Nationalist Party in a statement said it always acted according to the law and would continue to do so with regard to the nomination of Mr Engerer as Deputy Mayor.

It was shameful, it said, that the PL was not acting according to the spirit of the law and the democratic will of the people. It was being inconsistent in its policies and showing a lack of confidence in the participation of young people.

It invited the PL and Joseph Muscat to declare the true reasons why they were opposing Mr Engerer's nomination.

See motion of no confidence in the pdf below.

See also

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100906/local/engerer-slated-for-sliema-deputy-mayor