Local Government Minister Owen Bonnici yesterday took the Opposition to task for accusing the government of “cancelling” the 2016 local council elections, when in fact they were simply being postponed so that two ballots – that for the councils and that for the European Parliament – would be held on the same day.

Winding up the debate in second reading of the Local Councils (Amendment) Bill, Dr Bonnici said this was “the only way it could be done”.

Cancellation was an incorrect term, because in March 2005 it was the Nationalist government that had cancelled the elections in Marsa and Żejtun.

As a result, 13,000 voters were denied the right to vote because the PN was afraid of suffering a huge electoral defeat in these localities. The PN had candidates willing to contest but they simply withdrew them.

So how could they now turn around and accuse the Labour government of cancelling elections, Dr Bonnici asked.

At the time there was even criticism from the PN candidates themselves because they only found out about the decision through the media. How could the Opposition be taken seriously on this issue?

Cancellation was an incorrect term, because in March 2005 it was the Nationalist government that had cancelled the elections in Marsa and Żejtun

Dr Bonnici accused PN speakers of choosing to be negative on the Bill, including Opposition leader Simon Busuttil.

He also recalled that when the councils first started functioning, then minister Austin Gatt had said that, on certain votes, the councillors needed to consult the PN.

On the other hand, Dr Bonnici pointed out, the Labour Party had always encouraged councillors to speak up on behalf of their locality. As a former councillor himself, he had faith in the councils.

He could not accept the PN’s accusation that the Labour government had not given the councils enough funds and cited instances of Nationalist councillors complaining of being “used” by their government and others when budgets were slashed by five per cent without any consultation.

Dr Bonnici also pointed out that, in his day, Chris Said had postponed 23 elections for local councils in order to space them out and not have elections every year.

This was exactly what the present government was doing, so why was it wrong for Labour to do so? One had to be consistent, he said.

The minister said it was difficult to take Dr Busuttil seriously because of this inconsistency.

The one thing the PL did not do was to set up the private-public partnerships which had led the councils to ruin.

Dr Said had urged the councils to take out loans to fix the roads and this had burdened them with crippling debts.

Another wrong decision was to make the regional centres responsible only for the tribunal sittings that concern parking tickets. Was this the real scope of the regions, he asked? There had to be better middle management with strong regional centres.

The central government should enter into a healthy dialogue with these regional centres which would in turn work with the 69 councils. He was asking the regional centres to rise to the occasion and be real leaders so that decisions would be taken in the real interests of the public.

Earlier, parliamentary secretary Chris Agius said there had been too many elections – 28 in all, including local elections and referenda – between 1993 and this year.

For the first time Malta would have three years with no elections, saving the Exchequer millions of euros, giving people some relief from constant campaigning, and during which time the elected councils could carry out their projects.

Mr Agius pointed out that the young age of candidates in local council elections was a good sign especially as so many of them had been elected. Seven of the mayors were young men and women who were giving a good service to their locality.

This augured well for a bright future for the local councils.