Labour leader Joseph Muscat said today that the situation at the prisons had deteriorated to the extent that there was an organised system of drug trafficking.

"The discovery of a person having drugs in prison is not a reason for a minister to resign, but in a situation where there is a whole racket, we are right to expect the minister of home affairs to shoulder responsibility for his failures," Dr Muscat said.

Once the prime minister was allowing his minister  to persist in error, then it was he who should assume responsibility, Dr Muscat said.

PLAYING WITH DEMOCRACY

Speaking during the local councils election campaign in Siggiewi, Dr Muscat also accused the Nationalist Party of trying to play with democracy in four localities.

He said that the PN had only fielded a minority of candidates for the elections in Zurrieq, Luqa, Marsa and Marsaxlokk, with the reason clearly being not to have more candidates than needed to form the councils - removing the need for elections.

The same tactic was employed in the past in Marsa and Zejtun, Dr Muscat recalled, but now the Labour Party had fielded enough candidates to make sure that the elections would go ahead.

This tactic was employed, he said, so that when the results of all the council elections were issued, Labour would have fewer votes since elections in some of the pro-Labour localities would not have taken place. The people should now go out to vote in greater numbers to show that they would not tolerate such manoeuvres, he said.

Dr Muscat also spoke on the manifesto for the elections, issued by the party in the morning, saying the party was committed to transparency and measures to benefit the family. It also wanted to improve working conditions for SMEs and reduce bureaucracy.

The Labour leader referred to the political situation, saying the current instability should not be allowed to persist and the government should not delay votes in parliament.