The issue should have been tackled in a better way, the Nationalist Party said on Thursday with regard to an internal investigation into the Naxxar mayor’s vote on development at the Naxxar fair grounds.

In December, the PN had asked Naxxar mayor Anne Marie Muscat Fenech Adami to resign from her post over an undeclared conflict of interest. The request had come from party secretary Michael Piccinino after consultation with party leader Bernard Grech.

Muscat Fenech Adami, who represents the PN as the locality’s mayor, voted in favour of a mega-development on the former trade fair grounds, despite the fact that the council had said it would vote against the project when it came before the Planning Authority. The mayor had refused to resign, and the matter was taken before the party’s discipline and ethics commission.

Earlier this week, former deputy leader Robert Arrigo had lashed out on leader Barnard Grech on the Naxxar report, saying that Grech did not like the report’s conclusions.

In a statement on Thursday, the PN said that it had been concluded that the issue could have been tackled in a better way “to avoid doubts”. Similar situations should be avoided, the party said.

The statement also said that no proof had been brought forward against former top official Ray Bezzina, who had called for an investigation on comments made by St Julian’s mayor Albert Buttigieg, who had said that an unelected official had conspired with a top developer, described as a “fat cat”, to silence him.

It was decided that, if similar cases happen in the future, they should be brought before the party structures and not in other fora.