PN files motion to annul postponement of administrative committee elections

The Nationalist Party has filed a motion in parliament asking for the annulment of a legal notice published last month, which has postponed a number of administrative committee elections around the country.

According to the legal notice, the elections have been postponed indefinitely and to be “held in any other date as published by regulations issued by the minister”. 

Administrative committees were introduced back in 2002 and were tasked with the running of hamlets previously under the responsibility of local councils.

However, a local council reform currently being debated in parliament has proposed that these councils be dissolved, with their authority reinvested in local councils.

In a statement on Tuesday, the PN said that in light of the fact that the government had no electoral mandate to remove, dissolve or alter the work of administrative committees, the Opposition was demanding the immediate revocation of the legal notice.

“The Nationalist Party believes that not only should these administrative councils continue to exist, but that they should be strengthened,” the PN said.

“Through the legal notice, the government, despite its talk of wanting to reform local councils, has again showed that its main intention is to continue chipping away at our communities’ decision making power.”

The PN said the government had acted in a similar manner when it stripped local councils of their enforcement powers through the setting up of LESA, as well as when it had decided to postpone local council elections two years ago.

“These actions all who that the Labour Party never believed in local councils and the devolution of power. On the other hand, the Nationalist Party not only gave birth to, and allowed local councils to grow…but is again acting as their shield and voice.”

The motion was presented to the speaker by the PN’s spokesperson for local government Robert Cutajar, reforms spokesperson Karol Aquilina and the deputy leader for parliamentary affairs David Agius.