Former Mqabba mayor Noel Galea has resigned from the council after his party’s local “humiliating” defeat last month.

He believed the party stood a better chance of gaining lost ground if he was not part of the council but promised to remain active in politics and within other structures of the Nationalist Party.

While admitting that he should not “take the election result personally”, he felt that the party needed someone new on the council to patch up the situation.

The PN lost the majority at the Mqabba council with an unprecedented swing of more than 300 votes. The party had lost the majority in 2005 but won it back in 2008.

Mr Galea said that after more than a month considering his options, he felt the party stood a better chance at regaining lost ground if there are new faces in the council.

“If I stay there, it’s like going against the people’s will because although under my mayorship the locality made great strides, people still voted us out. That in itself is a vote against my way of doing things,” he said when contacted. His resignation from the council also automatically created a vacancy in yet another PN structure since Mr Galea, 42, was president of the party’s College of Councillors.

Mr Galea, who has been involved in politics for 16 years, 11 of which on the Mqabba council, served as mayor for a year before being elected for a full term in 2008.

He promised to remain active within the PN, saying he would discuss his role within party structures with the new leader-ship team.