Għargħur gets Labour mayor after no confidence motion against PN councillor

Mariah Meli is the new mayor of Għargħur after three councillors tabled a motion of no confidence against her predecessor Helen Gauci.

The Labour Party broke the news in a statement on Wednesday. According to the party, two Labour councillors and a Nationalist-turned-independent member of the same council voted in favour of a motion of no confidence against Gauci.

The councillors tabled the motion because of suspicious expenditure under the mayor’s administration.

The Għargħur council was shaken up last month after Francesca Attard, who was elected on the Nationalist ticket, announced she will continue serving on the council as an independent member.

“I want to work free from political pressure,” she wrote on Facebook when she announced the move.

Attard was elected on the second count with 384 votes. The council is ended up split with two Nationalist councillors, two Labour councillors and one independent member.

PL insists move respects democracy, but PN thinks otherwise

In its statement, the Labour Party said that the vote respects the democratic process. “Instead of ensuring its councillors act with good governance and transparency in this locality, the Nationalist Party is attempting to disrupt the course of a democratic process in a way that suits its preferred council composition.”

It said the PN should respect this result “just as the Labour Party has respected the outcomes of other councils formed in a similar manner to that of Ħal Għargħur”.

“There is no doubt that the decision taken by the Labour and Independent councillors of Ħal Għargħur was made in the best interest of the residents of Għargħur, who deserve their locality to be led with full transparency, as required by good governance.”

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Party said the move was extremely anti-democratic, likening it to a bulldozing over the residents of the locality.

“In the June election, Gauci alone received more votes than those obtained collectively by the two Labour Local Councillors and the Independent Councillor who submitted the motion of no confidence against her,” the party said.

“Nevertheless, in an attack on democracy driven purely by political motives and orchestrated by the Labour Party, today Robert Abela’s Labour betrayed the interests of the people of Ħal Għargħur to seize control of this Local Council against the will of the majority.”

The party pointed out that its councillors were elected on an absolute majority of over 62% of the vote. The mayor alone received 869 votes, or 43% of the total, while the three councillors who removed her from office received 783 votes combined.

“But through the manoeuvres of recent days, culminating this evening with the approval of the Labour Party's top leadership, this majority will is no longer reflected in the leadership of the Ħal Għargħur Council.”