Labour’s most popular Birkirkara councillor votes against party’s instructions on mayor

Nationalist councillor Desirei Grech has been elected interim Birkirkara mayor after Labour’s lead candidate voted against the party’s nomination for the post.

In a council meeting on Tuesday, the Labour Party instructed its councillors to nominate independent Kaylocke Buhagiar for the locality’s mayor, but the party’s most popular candidate Yana Debono Grech voted against the nomination.

The instructions came after Debono Grech’s nomination for mayor last week achieved no majority.

After no nomination - either Labour, Nationalist or independent - achieved a simple majority in the vote for mayor, Grech was elected mayor for the period of three months on Tuesday, having been the most popular candidate from the most popular party.

Independent councillor Kaylocke Buhagiar celebrates with Labour delegates at the Naxxar Counting Hall after getting elected in local council election (Photo: James Bianchi/MaltaToday)

MaltaToday is informed the decision to nominate Buhagiar has irked a number of Labour councillors, most notably Yana Debono Grech. She was the Labour Party’s most popular candidate in this year’s local council election, having been elected with 1,805 first count votes.

Councillor Desirei Grech was the most popular Nationalist candidate in the local council election, getting elected with 1,802 first count votes.

The Nationalist Party obtained the largest number of votes with 47.51%, compared to the 41.66% of the Labour Party.

Party in no position to ‘hurt people’ - Rosianne Cutajar

In a Facebook post on. Tuesday afternoon, independent MP Rosianne Cutajar voiced her support for Debono Grech, saying the party is in no position to “hurt people”.

“Her grandfather and mother are pillars in the Labour Party who have always loved the Karkarisi and Birkirkara,” she said. “We made a mechanism to strengthen the representation of women in parliament, and at the same time, someone decided to deprive a woman, Yana, from serving as Mayor.”

She questioned in whose interests’ decisions were being taken.