Opposition leader says consultation on elections’ postponement ‘theatrics’

@JosephMuscat_JM's 'consultation' on cancelling local council elections is a piece of theatrics from beginning to end. Simply absurd.

— Simon Busuttil (@SimonBusuttil) August 28, 2014

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil sent out a tweet today saying Joseph Muscat's public consultation with political parties on whether to postpone the forthcoming March 2015 local council elections to 2019 to coincide with the next European elections, was only "theatrics".

"Muscat's 'consultation' on cancelling local council elections is a piece of theatrics from beginning to end. Simply absurd," Busuttil said, who was the first to reveal in the House that Muscat was planning to postpone the council elections.

Postponing the elections by grouping all of Malta's 65 councils in five-year terms, starting from 2019, would mean removing what many see are 'mid-term' elections for governments in Malta.

But critics also claim Muscat is trying to appease the influential hunters' lobby, by not having a proposed spring hunting referendum coincide with the March elections, in a bid to stunt participation in the plebiscite. He has previously dubbed the abrogative referendum "divisive" while hunters' lobby FKNK have demanded that the referendum be a "standalone" poll.

The government on Wednesday opened a public consultation exercise to postpone local council elections up until 2019 to coincide with the next European elections.

Parliamentary Secretary for local government, Stefan Buontempo, said the government was committed to secure consultation with party local councillors from the Nationalist Party and Alternattiva Demokratika, as well as Labour, and the Local Councils' Association, in a bid to take a decision before the next council elections in March 2015. Members of the Vote 16 Campaign will also be consulted.

The consultation will last until 27 September, 2014.

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici has refuted suggestions that the postponement of council elections was connected in any way to the spring hunting referendum, which is being called by over 40,000 signatories to a petition collected by the Coalition Against Spring Hunting. The signatures must be presented to the Constitutional Court after being verified by the Electoral Commission.