Opposition leader Simon Busuttil yesterday appealed to government to continue the practice followed for the past 30 years whereby electoral legislation was amended by consensus.

Speaking at a meeting of the Committee for the Consideration of Bills in the afternoon, Dr Busuttil said that Bill 84 amending the Local Councils’ Act was a retrograde step for democracy as it abolished the 2017 council elections.

He said that he was participating in the committee meeting to make a last-ditch appeal to the government to withdraw the Bill.

“We cannot allow this to take place as if nothing is happening. No government that wants to call itself democratic can ever think of doing so,” Dr Busuttil said.

The move conflicted with the decision to allow 16-year-olds to vote. One could not grant them the right to vote only to then take the election away, he said. Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said the amendment sought to extend the term of local councils from four to five years so that local council elections coincided with those for the European Parliament.

Following a consultation exercise, the government saw that there was general agreement on this measure, he said.

Dr Bonnici said that on a practical level, this could be achieved in two ways.

One could either hold the 2017 elections with some councils running a three-year term, or else one could refrain from holding the elections and extend the term for the councils up to 2019.

The government preferred the latter option.

Former Nationalist local government minister Chris Said said experience showed that holding the local councils elections together with the European Parliament’s harmed the local councils as the European Parliament dominated the electoral campaign. The Bill was approved by the Committee.