Uploaded Tuesday 9.10am with PN reaction below.
The PL on Monday said Birkirkara's independent councillor had turned down its proposal to hold the locality's mayorship for two and a half years before passing on the baton to a PL mayor for the rest of the term.
Birkirkara was one of several localities that in June found itself with a hung council after independent councillor Kaylocke Buhagiar was elected, with the remaining seats going evenly between the PL and PN.
Buhagiar, a former Labour councillor, has been unwilling to endorse a candidate from either party.
The PN 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 among councillors.
The PN-led council will on Tuesday meet to decide the way forward.
But on the eve of that meeting, the PL's deputy leader for party affairs Alex Agius Saliba convened a meeting between the Labour candidates and Buhagiar.
It was proposed that Buhagiar serves as mayor for two and a half years, and deputy mayor for the rest of the term. A PL mayor would lead the council in the remaining two and a half years.
"This proposal was made based on the fact that the total amount of votes cast for PL candidates and Buhagiar make up the majority of the votes cast in the locality," the PL said in a statement.
However, Buhagiar turned down the proposal and said he wanted to lead the council for five years.
"The PL cannot accept this proposal as it does not reflect the electoral result in Birkirkara.
"The Birkirkara PL councillors will make sure that the people's verdict is always respected, and will continue working in the best interest of the Birkirlara community."
PN: Labour should respect the will of the people and back Nationalist mayor
In a reaction on Tuesday, the Nationalist Party said that if the Labour Party truly believed that the will of the people of Birkirkara should be respected, its councillors should vote for the appointment of a PN mayor, since it was the PN which got the most votes in the locality.
It said it would continue to work for the result of the June election to be reflected in the running of the council.