PL president resigned sensitive post on planning appeals tribunal

Labour’s newly-elected party president said she resigned her influential post on the Planning appeals tribunal, before submitting her candidature for the party post.

Ramona Attard, a former government spokesperson who is now President of the Labour Party, said she had resigned her post on the Environment Planning and Review Tribunal before submitting her nomination.

Her statement on Facebook came in a reaction to a statement from the NGO Repubblika, who on Monday morning said Attard’s position was untenable.

Attard reacted to the 9:30am statement, saying she had resigned the EPRT “before even collecting my nomination form from the Labour Party… I thank them for wishing me well,” Attard said.

Repubblika had already criticised Attard’s, a lawyer, nomination to the EPRT days after the resignation of former PM Joseph Muscat. “We stated that it is unfair to appoint persons on the basis of political loyalty,” the NGO said.

The EPRT is a quasi-judicial body whose members are however directly appointed by the government.

Attard’s election to the role of party president follows in the wake of her predecessor Daniel José Micallef’s election to the post of Labour deputy leader for party affairs.