The Birkirkara local council remains locked in a stalemate over who will take the mayor's seat, almost a month after elections were held.

Birkirkara was one of several localities that found itself with a hung council after independent councillor Kaylocke Buhagiar was elected, with the remaining seats going evenly between the PL and PN. The PN, however, won the biggest number of votes.  

Malta’s electoral law says that the candidate who obtains the most votes from the party that wins the most seats becomes mayor but, in cases such as this where no one party wins a majority of seats, the matter is taken to a vote amongst councillors.

But discussions appear to have hit a brick wall.

Taking to Facebook on Tuesday, PL councillor Yana Borg Debono Grech said that a proposal by PL councillors for her to be made mayor with Buhagiar taking the vice-mayor role was shot down after PN councillors and Buhagiar himself voted against the proposal.

A proposal by PN councillors nominating PN’s Desirei Grech in the role of mayor met the same fate, after it was opposed by PL councillors and Buhagiar.

What happens next?

Councillors will once again meet early next week and take another vote to try resolve the stalemate.

But with councillors from both parties toeing the party line and Buhagiar, a former Labour councillor,  so far unwilling to endorse a candidate from either party, it is unclear how the situation will play out.

If the impasse remains after next week’s meeting, the council will have to appoint an interim mayor for a three month term, until it eventually returns to the negotiating table to take another vote in September.

This would mean that PN’s Desirei Grech is made interim mayor, as she is the candidate with the most first-count votes (1,802) from the party that won the most votes across the town.

PN won almost 48% of the total votes to the PL's 42%, while Buhagiar clocked 8% of votes in the locality.

Kaylocke Buhagiar celebrating his election at the counting hall last month. File photo: Matthew Mirabelli

PL councillors argue that their party's frontrunner, Yana Borg Debono Grech, is the councillor who won the most votes across the entire council, pipping Desirei Grech to the post by just three votes (1,805 to Grech’s 1,802).

Kaylocke Buhagiar ended the election a distant fourth with 999 first-count votes, behind Yana Borg Debono Grech, Desirei Grech and also PN councillor Maurizio Gauci.

Birkirkara was one of several localities that ended up with a hung council after the June elections. 

In Mellieħa, the issue was resolved after independent councillor Matthew Borg Cuschieri decided to take on the deputy mayor's role and ceded the mayor's role to the Nationalist Party in what he said was a "just decision".

Independent councillor Steve Zammit Lupi meanwhile was appointed mayor of Żebbuġ after an agreement was reached with Labour and Nationalist Party councillors elected in the locality.