Updated | Labour, PN trade blows over party 'drop-outs'

Updated at 5:52pm.

A former Labour deputy mayor turned independent, Alfred Mazzitelli, has refused to explain why he is under police investigation.

The Pembroke councillor has told PN organ In-Nazzjon that Labour deputy leader Toni Abela wanted to get rid of him because he worked well with his Nationalist colleagues, and that he accused him of 'terrorising' his colleagues, apart from being investigated by the Police.

Mazzitelli has denied Abela's accusations, but refused to divulge what the police investigation is about.

Mazzitelli received two letters from the Labour Party in the last two months. In the first letter, dated September 9, Abela informed Mazzitelli that attempts to contact him proved to be futile and that Mazzitelli would not return calls, even when he said he would do so.

Abela also warned Mazzitelli that the PL had not intention of letting the Pembroke local council - with a Labour majority - "degenerate". "The Party wants to assure that the community receives the best in the localities in which it has the majority," Abela wrote.

The letter goes on to warn Mazzitelli that if he fails to contact Abela, it would be mean that Mazzitelli was no longer interested in the Labour Party.

In a second letter dated October 25, Abela informed Mazzitelli that the Labour Party no longer considered him as a representative of the PL.

Mazzitelli refused to explain what the police investigation was about, saying he was "too down" to talk about it. "I have the support of my Party and my residents. I am clean and untainted," Mazzitelli said, adding he could not understand why he was fired from the PL.

In a statement, Labour said it was disappointed at the way the Nationalist media was taking advantage of Labour's decision to ask Mazzitelli not to represent the party any longer in Pembroke.

The Nationalist Party replied in a statement that Labour itself had welcomed in its fold the former Nationalist councillor Cyrus Engerer, who was facing police charges in court of harassing his former partner, but who had in the meantime aksed for police charges to be dropped; and also Joe Woods, the brother of Thomas Woods, the former private secretary in the health ministry who was found guilty of bribery. The PN said Labour had taken no steps over former Bormla mayor Joe Scerri, who was found guilty by a court of abuse of his office. The latter recently resigned after he appealed his court sentence.

"We will not be offering refuge to Mazzitelli in our party," the PN said.