Despite charges, Gozo mayors set to contest for PN

The Nationalist Party has reportedly succumbed to electoral pressure in Gozo, and may be allowing three of its most popular councillors to stand for re-election in the forthcoming local council elections under its ticket, despite facing criminal charges before the courts.
San Lawrenz mayor Noel Formosa, Kercem mayor Joe Grima and Zebbug mayor Charles Saliba were recently reported by sister paper MaltaToday to have warned the Nationalist Party that they were prepared to stand for re-election under the name of ‘Moviment Popolari’ should they not be allowed to re-contest under the PN ticket. The move would mean a significant blow to the PN’s majority in these councils, given the popularity of the councillors within their localities.
Sources in San Lawrenz, Zebbug and Kercem have told GozoToday that all three have been conducting door-to-door campaigning, telling voters that they will be standing with the PN.
GozoToday is also informed that Formosa, Saliba and Grima have been mounting pressure on the PN to formalise their candidature for the local council elections, set for next March.
Formosa, Grima and Saliba have however refused to divulge any comments when contacted yesterday. Numerous calls to PN secretary general Paul Borg Olivier also proved futile.
San Lawrenz mayor Noel Formosa faces fraud charges together with five other serving and former local councillors and two directors of a travel agency in claims for travel expenses,  to the detriment of the European Commission.
Formosa, who pled not guilty to the charges, was investigated by the EU’s anti-fraud office OLAF.
According to evidence before a court, the accused defrauded the European Commission of a total of €96,000.
The abuse was flagged by the Commission to the OLAF because of the large amount of tickets issued, all for the same amount of €599. The investigation was concentrated on the period February 2004 to February 2007.
Kercem mayor Grima – who has since resigned as a PN representative  – stands accused of having assaulted a police officer, over an alleged parking offence.
Zebbug mayor Saliba also resigned from the PN for allegedly being “in a better position for him to defend himself against the charges of misappropriation that have been levelled against him”.
Saliba is accused of misappropriating the council’s laptop,  by letting his daughter to use it to access her Facebook account.
The Zebbug mayor, who works for Transport Malta’s Gozo office, said that although his children had their own computers, his daughter sometimes used his if it happened to be switched on in his study.

This article featured in today's GozoToday edition.