Justice minister denies local council results indicate shift towards PN

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici has played down suggestions that the local council results have indicated a shift in public trust from the Labour Party to the Nationalist Party.

The PL won 54% of the votes in last weekend’s election, down from the 57% it had won in 2012, when this round of local council elections was last held.

Bonnici pointed out that Labour’s 54% victory was an identical margin to its victories in the 2013 general elections and the 2014 European Parliament elections. “The PN government was particularly unstable in 2012, a possible indication as to why the PL had won 57% of the votes in that year’s round of local council elections,” Bonnici said on Reporter.

“In 2012, a number of people voted for Labour in the local council elections but didn’t vote for us in the elections the next year. That same 3% of voters didn’t vote for us again in 2015.

“The people haven’t sent the government a warning message. The people who voted for us in the general elections voted for us again in the local council elections.

“Using that logic, [former Prime Minister] Lawrence Gonzi made the same gains between 2012 and 2013, as Busuttil made between 2012 and 2015.”

Bonnici argued that Oppositions across Europe tend to win mid-term elections.

“On the other hand, the Maltese Opposition has lost them by the same margin as it had lost the general elections,” Bonnici said. “I feel sorry for true Nationalists who are now seeing their party leader celebrating this loss as though he had won the elections.”

Shadow economy minister Claudio Grech retorted that 13,700 more people voted for the PN in this year’s local council election than they had in 2012.

“The PL clearly won these elections and we shouldn’t get hysterical over having narrowed the gap, but you cannot deny that the PN has made gains since 2012, despite the majority of the councils up for re-elections being Labour strongholds,” Grech said.

“In Labour strongholds such as Birzebbuga, Paola and Santa Lucija, the PN gained its best-ever result in a local council election. The fact is that the PN has taken a step forward, while the PL has taken a step backwards.”

He accused Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of “spinning” the local council election results. “Muscat spins has chosen to ignore the 2012 local council election results, because it was more convenient for him to compare this year’s results with the 2013 general elections,” Grech said.

He added that the PN will now build on these results to become an Opposition that proposes alternatives rather than simply criticizing the government’s “several shortcomings”.

“The people will be faced with a choice between a party who has learnt from its mistakes, and a party who throws money at its problems, such as by drastically increasing the public sector wage bill to reduce unemployment.”

Alternattiva Demokratika secretary general Ralph Cassar, the only candidate to have won election on the AD ticket this year, said that he was “pleased” with the overall result.

When asked whether the AD were expecting a better result in lieu of their overt support for a ban on spring hunting in the referendum, Cassar said that the AD cannot compete with the PL and the PN’s “electoral machines”.

“However, where the No vote prevailed, such as in Attard and St. Julian’s, support for AD did grow,” Cassar said. “Obviously, a lot of work needs to be done to encourage valid people to run as candidates on the AD ticket.”  

‘Referendum shows vigour of civil society’ – Grech

The spring hunting referendum was only very narrowly won by the Yes to spring hunting vote, despite both Muscat and Busuttil having declared their intentions to vote Yes.

Indeed, Grech said that the result has sent a powerful message to politicians.

“Civil society taught a lesson to politicians that they are ready to act if politicians are unwilling to take a decision on something they feel strongly about,” Grech said.

Bonnici admitted that the government has failed in aspects pertaining to the environment, and will reach out to environmental NGOs following the referendum result.

However, Cassar was more cautious.

“Politicians often pay lip service to the environment but fail to take proper measures to protect it,” Cassar said. “We need to start realizing that the environment is intrinsically tied down to our quality of life- from traffic congestion, to the air that we breathe, to the over-development that had occurred under the previous administration and is ongoing under the current one.

“When Maltese governments say that they are ‘pro-business’, they don’t mean that they are in favour of small businesses but in favour of large companies and further development.”