PN loses majority in two council regions, now only leads in one

The Nationalist Party has lost the majority in two regional councils, the Northern and Gozo, so it now only attains a majority of councillors in one region - the Eastern one.

In elections for regional councils amongst local councillors, the PN lost the majority in the Northern region, which includes the localities of Naxxar, St Paul’s Bay, Mosta, Mtarfa, Mellieħa, Attard, Balzan, San Ġwann and Mġarr.

Although from these localities, 39 councillors come from the PN and 37 from the Labour Party, the PL obtained 41 votes in contrast to the PN’s 30 votes.

All excluding one PL councillor voted for the Labour candidate Clifford Galea Vella Maslenikov, a number of PN councillors abstained or voted for the PL councillor. He will be the first ever PL president for the Northern region.

The PN has also lost the Gozo region, where it also has a majority of councillors, as the former PN mayor of Rabat Samuel Azzopardi contested as an independent. Azzopardi got 49 votes, while PN’s Robert Tabone only got 20 votes.

Azzopardi, who supported Adrian Delia for the PN leadership contest, was already the region’s President under the PN flag.

This now means that the PL now enjoys the majority in four regions; the Northern, Western, Port and Southern. The PN only leads in the Eastern region, while Gozo is now independent.