Surprise move solves Gzira mayor election impasse

Gzira Nationalist councillor Ian Micallef yesterday brought to an end an eight-month-long impasse on who should become the locality's mayor when he nominated fellow councillor Albert Rizzo, his rival, for the post.

The four Nationalist candidates elected to the Gzira council on June 12 last year disagreed on whether Dr Micallef or Mr Rizzo should become mayor.

When a vote was taken to decide on the issue, PN councillor Barbara Buttigieg, who eventually resigned and was replaced by Victor Rutter, voted for Dr Micallef. Malcolm Camilleri, the other Nationalist, supported Mr Rizzo. The tie, as well as Dr Micallef and Mr Rizzo's refusal to budge, led to a situation where Labour councillor Anthony Abela, the eldest on the Gzira council but the one who got fewer votes, took over as an interim mayor.

But in a "surprise" move yesterday, Dr Micallef, who is also the president of the Local Councils' Association, said in a statement he was nominating Mr Rizzo because his profession and the association's work took up most of the time he would have had to give as mayor.

Dr Micallef declared he was nominating Mr Rizzo as mayor without any form of "partisan or political intent, or pressure on the council's executive secretary or staff". He said he was nominating Mr Rizzo as the councillor who had shown a strong determination to become mayor.

Dr Micallef said when contacted he had decided to set aside his personal interest and nominate Mr Rizzo instead, putting the interests of the PN and the locality before his own.

In Dr Micallef's words, what prompted him to make the move was that the three MLP councillors had been "leading the council as though it was a local committee of the Labour Party".

Mr Rizzo, 57, contested the Gzira local election in 1994 as an independent councillor and has been elected to the council ever since.

Asked why he had decided to contest the election in the PN's name once he had been elected as an independent candidate in three successive elections, Mr Rizzo said other independent councillors who eventually became Labour candidates had "cast him aside" and not given him any responsibilities.

He said he was "positively surprised" that he was nominated mayor by his rival during a meeting yesterday, adding that his refusal to renounce to the post had not been motivated by pride.

"I wanted to become mayor as a matter of principle. I am the one who got the largest number of votes and I had the right to it. I am capable of uniting Gzira residents, Nationalists and Labourites, in the best interest of the locality," Mr Rizzo said, adding he had been contemplating resigning from the council if the situation had not changed.

Mr Rizzo yesterday nominated Mr Rutter as vice mayor.