The Nationalist Party’s College of Councillors condemned the removal of Nationalist councillor Ian Micallef from a position he occupied in the Gzira local council.

In a statement, college president Malcolm Mifsud said that in a motion presented by Anthony Abela and Joseph Zammit, Gzira mayor and vice-mayor Dr Micallef was removed from his responsibilities within the council. He was also removed from the joint committee on law enforcement.

Dr Micallef is the president of the Local Councils Association as well as chairman of the Committee on Law Enforcement and as such is competent enough to represent Gzira’s interests, Dr Mifsud said.

He described this as “another discriminatory act by the Labour Party against Nationalist councillors”. This is being done in councils with a Labour majority. Before the Gzira incident another PN councillor, Paula Mifsud Bonnici, was removed by the Hamrun local council from her position as representative on the joint committee.

Dr Mifsud said the removal of Dr Micallef came just before the joint committee discusses and decides on a tender to choose a contractor for local wardens’ services. Dr Micallef was involved right from the start in the drawing up of the tender document and the planning of the law enforcement system by local councils.

“His removal is an attempt by the MLP to hinder the process,” Dr Mifsud claimed, adding that Dr Micallef will continue giving his service to Gzira in spite of the MLP’s behaviour.