Birkirkara is left, once again,  without a mayor after its councillors could not agree on who should take up the role during a meeting on Tuesday afternoon. 

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. The PN won the biggest number of votes. 

During Tuesday's meeting, councillors met to vote on who should lead the local council and become mayor, yet an agreement was not reached. 

Now the councillors will meet once again on Tuesday 15 October to try and agree on who should be the locality's mayor. 

PN councillor Desirei Grech, who served as the council’s interim mayor for the past three months took to Facebook to express how Birkirkara deserves stability. 

“Birkirkara deserves five years during which the will of the residents is respected,” she said.

The vote comes a day after Buhagiar had turned down the proposal by the Labour Party 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. 

The PL's deputy leader for party affairs Alex Agius Saliba convened a meeting between the Labour candidates and Buhagiar.

Yet, Buhagiar turned down the proposal and said he wanted to lead the council for five years.

Buhagiar, a former Labour councillor, has been unwilling to endorse a candidate from either party.

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.