|
Saliba on PM secretary’s election failure
Karl Schembri
The failure of the Prime Minister’s personal secretary Remigio Barolo to get elected to the Attard local council has been downplayed as insignificant by Secretary General Joe Saliba.
The prime minister’s aide and former deputy mayor failed to get elected last week, garnering only 263 first count votes while Alternattiva Demokratika got its candidate Ralph Cassar elected to the council.
“It means nothing,” Saliba said when asked about the significance of Bartolo’s electoral mishap. “He was left hanging and the Alternattiva candidate got elected instead of him. Are we implying that the people vote for a person according to his links to the prime minister? Are we now deciding the interpretation of the vote? No I don’t accept that. The people are intelligent and mature and I highly respect the electorate’s decision and I have no right to interpret their vote.”
Proving once again to be highly popular in Attard, mayor Norbert Pace was re-elected with 662 first-count votes – the highest amount of votes among PN candidates despite serious problems about his candidature with the party’s administration.
Asked about conflicts between Pace and the party, Saliba downplayed widespread rumours doing the rounds.
“There will always be conflicts, not just with Norbert,” Saliba said. “Remember we’re a party with around 1,500 activists in committees, officials, and members of the executive and local councils. Wherever you have people you have different ideas, and one cannot always find common ground on everything. We didn’t have the question of whether he should contest or not. The questions that arose were about a number of issues we discussed over the last three years. Norbert worked a lot and did a lot of good for Attard, but obviously as happens with other councillors you would have a number of points you disagree on. But there’s nothing wrong with that.”
|
