Justice Minister Owen Bonnici has stepped in to try and resolve chaos within St Paul's Bay local council, ordering the locality's most senior councillor to assume the mayorship.
In a statement issued by the Justice Ministry on Saturday afternoon, Dr Bonnici said that he had issued instructions for the councillor from the party which won the previous election and who had received the highest number of first-count votes after the previous mayor to assume the position.
This, he said, was in line with stipulations in the Local Councils Act as well as a civil court decision taken earlier this month.
He said the council must now call an urgent meeting to appoint a mayor and deputy mayor, to ensure the local council resumed its functions and served residents of the coastal town.
In a statement, the Nationalist Party welcomed Dr Bonnici's statement, saying that it appeared there was agreement that the town's mayor should come from within PN ranks and that the council could now thrash out a deal.
The PN obtained the most votes during the 2015 council elections.
St Paul's Bay local council has descended into chaos over the past months, with two Nationalist Party councillors quitting the party while remaining on the council as independents and a third, Graziella Galea, resigning as mayor ahead of a planned no-confidence vote.
Former deputy mayor David Thake had also quit the council altogether last October.
Following Ms Galea's resignation, the PN filed a court injunction, saying that the Labour Party minority was trying to usurp it and assume the mayorship despite having obtained fewer votes in the 2015 council elections.
With nobody serving as mayor, the council has reportedly had trouble signing off on payments in recent weeks, with local council staff caught in the middle of the political tumult.
Earlier on Saturday, the Labour Party had alleged that the PN's next most senior St Paul's Bay councillor had refused to take the oath of office as mayor.
See the results of the 2015 local council elections.