Updated 5.35pm

Mellieħa's independent councillor Matthew Borg Cuschieri has decided to take on the deputy mayor's role and ceded the mayor's role to the Nationalist Party in what he believes is a "just decision".

This means Gabriel Micallef will serve as mayor while Borg Cuschieri will be deputy mayor. 

His statement came shortly after Labour's local councillors said they were proposing Borg Cuschieri as mayor. 

Mellieħa ended up with a hung council following the June 8 elections. The Labour and Nationalist Party elected four seats each in the nine-seat council. One was elected as an independent. 

In a statement, the PL’s four councillors said that following discussion, it was proposed that Borg Cuschieri occupies the role of mayor for five years, the full length of the council.

The two parties should then divide the role of deputy mayor, with a councillor from each party occupying the role for two and a half years each, the statement signed by the Mellieħa Labour Party said.

The PN won the majority of votes in Mellieħa. Photo: Electoral Commission

The councillors said they believe this proposal reflects and fully respects the results of the 2024 local council election. 

But in a Facebook post shortly after, Borg Cuschieri said that even though Labour suggested he should serve as mayor, he needed to take into consideration the number of votes democratically given to the other parties. 

He said he initially offered the PN to have its mayor for a two-and-a-half-year term and that he will serve as mayor for the rest in line with the PL's wish. The PN did not accept this and a compromise was reached that the PN would have its mayor and he would serve as deputy mayor. 

"It's important to note that I will remain totally independent and I am not forming a coalition with the PN," Borg Cuschieri said.

In a statement, the Nationalist Party welcomed the agreement, saying it reflects the wishes of Mellieħa residents.

The local council will also be implementing the PN’s electoral programme but will also consider other proposals made for Mellieħa during the electoral campaign.

Almost half of the 13,000 people eligible to vote in the Mellieħa council chose to cast their vote.

Borg Cuschieri won eight per cent of the vote (546), the PN got 49 per cent while the PL received 41 per cent of those who cast their ballots in Mellieħa and Manikata. 

Five elected candidates received more votes than the independent councillor, including the PN’s Gabriel Micallef, who received the most votes - 1,525.