Fresh elections to appoint the executive of the Local Councils Association will be held soon, after Labour’s win in Saturday’s elections gave it a majority of councillors and mayors overall.

Because the present executive has only two Labour councillors to four for the Nationalist Party, its composition does not reflect the MLP’s overall majority. On Tuesday, the Labour Party called for elections to be held again.

Speaking to The Malta Independent yesterday, Justice and Home Affairs minister Tonio Borg said that following a meeting with representatives from the association, a decision was taken to hold fresh elections to appoint a new executive.

However, representatives of the Labour Party are believed to be sceptical that these elections will actually lead to a change in composition of the executive.

MLP council section vice-president Luciano Busuttil said that new elections would change the composition of the executive very little.

“We are in favour of a full reform in the electoral system of the association because new elections will only reaffirm a PN majority. This is due to the fact that the regions as set up favour the PN and the eventual result will not reflect the majority that the MLP now enjoys,” he said.

Dr Busuttil confirmed that the Labour members on the executive would not be taking part in work related to local issues but the association would keep its foreign commitments.

He said the party would continue to call for the dissolution of the association and for a new electoral system to be implemented.

The executive’s term expires on 30 September 2006, by which date elections must be held. There are six members on the executive, representing six regions, one of which is Gozo, where the PN has a majority. In only two regions does the MLP have a clear majority. These are both in the south, with the other three in central and northern Malta.

Labour currently has a majority of 42 councillors and also leads the mayors’ list by 37 to 31, or 54 per cent of the total.