Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this evening dismissed the PN's suggestion that development outside development zones should be subject to approval by a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

He said he did not agree with this recommendation as he didn’t want politicians to decide on such projects, as this should be left in the hands of experts.

"I don't want to turn the clock back and leave these decisions up to politicians, as that is the recipe for corruption, Dr Muscat said an extraordinary meeting of the Labour Party's general conference, convened to elect the new deputy leader for party affairs.

Dr Muscat said land was a scarce resource, and the government had only taken a very small amount of ODZ land for its projects, when compared to previous administrations.

"Don't judge us on applications filed by the private sector," Dr Muscat urged those present.

In a reaction to Dr Muscat's comments on its ODZ proposal, the Nationalist Party said Dr Muscat had shown how he was cut off from the people when he described the proposal on ODZ developments as a recipe for corruption.

Dr Muscat was also isolated, since he was the only one to have criticised the proposal, with environment NGOs having praised it.

ELECTION OF DEPUTY LEADER

In his speech, Dr Muscat said Labour’s three-horse race for the election of the deputy leader for party affairs will not chose one winner and throw away the other two.

“I thank all three for their honest and positive campaign. Through this election, we will not have chosen one to put the other two to the side. We would have chosen one of them to work alongside the other two.”

He was speaking ahead of the opening of the voting by more than 700 delegates to elect the party’s new deputy leader for party affairs.

The Labour deputy leader election is a race between Justice Minister Owen Bonnici, Economic Services Minister Chris Cardona and former Labour Party president Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi.

Voting will take place tomorrow between 9am and 8pm, and whoever gets 50 per cent plus one of the valid votes will be elected to the post.

If no one gets the required amount, the two front runners will battle it out again on Saturday.

The election is being held following the resignation of Konrad Mizzi in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal. Dr Mizzi was elected to the post last February in a one-horse race.

Dr Muscat said that over the past few weeks, the Labour Party could take a good look within itself.

He expressed disappointment at the “muttering” over the past few weeks, urging the delegates to replace the grievances between them with a positive outlook.

“No one is chained to remain here by force. We are free citizens who are choosing to give our free time, some of us our lives, to the Labour Party. The most admirable people are those behind the scenes.”

He added that the party now needed to keep up with the government’s positive energy.

“I am here to lead a movement and make sure that this party remains to be perceived as a government. For many years, the PL was considered the natural Opposition. Today, people look at us as the party in government,” he said. 

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