MLP 'still willing' to pull out of local council elections

The Malta Labour Party still believes that political parties should not contest local council elections and if the Nationalist Party were to withdraw from such elections, the MLP would follow suit, Alfred Sant said yesterday.

Flanked by the two deputy leaders, Michael Falzon and Charles Mangion, and other party officials, Dr Sant told a news conference that apart from a generic political manifesto for all councils, the party also had specific programmes for each locality. The party was pledging to implement two of the measures announced it its manifestos within the first 100 days of the councils starting their term.

He said Labour-run councils were more efficient and had implemented 85 per cent of what they had promised, compared to an average of 52 per cent by PN dominated councils.

Dr Sant said Labour wanted to make a difference and its manifesto contained issues of concern to people, such as education, having a better environment, social welfare as well as employment. The party continued to oppose the introduction of local taxes, even if these were in the form of payments for services.

Dr Sant said it was "a scandal" how a person close to the PN had been given a tract of land in Mellieha to build a petrol station when residents opposed this and the site was ideal for a nursery for a sports centre adjacent to the site in question. An alternative site should have been found for the petrol station and things should not have been hushed up in this way so that no works would start before the March elections.

Dr Sant said the programme highlighted the need for wardens to be involved in environmental issues rather than just issuing parking tickets. The manifesto spoke of wardens "having an educational role that will lead to observance of regulations".

He said Labour councillors would in the future build on their success with increased focus on social issues, such as through the running of day care centres and centres for the elderly.

Asked how the councils could run day care centres without charging for them, Dr Sant said a future Labour government would assign more people from the public sector to local councils. In that way, the government would be paying the wages and the councils could offer the services without the need to pay for them.

The local councils, Dr Sant said, should also increasingly work together on a regional basis.

Asked where waste recycling plants should be sited, Dr Sant said the issue should be discussed regionally by the councils involved and he opined that there should be about three such plants, rather than a large one, to cater for all the waste.

Dr Sant criticised the PN for having withdrawn some of its candidates from the Marsa and Zejtun elections so that the poll would not be held there. In so doing, he said, the PN had denied the people the right to make their democratic choices.