Independent councillor Nigel Holland has been elected mayor of Floriana after a vote was taken during the first local council meeting held yesterday.

Nationalist councillor Franco Davies was elected deputy mayor in a separate open ballot, a council statement said yesterday.

The mayor of a locality is, according to law, the councillor who obtains the highest number of votes from among those representing the party that obtains a majority. But, in Floriana’s case, no party obtained a majority and of the five councillors elected, two were from the Malta Labour Party, two were from the Nationalist Party and the fifth was an independent.

The MLP had written to the Department of Local Government insisting that Labour councillor Brian Zammit, who had received the highest number of votes, should be appointed mayor.

But the law stipulates that the minister responsible for local councils has the right to choose who should be mayor only if the councillors fail to reach agreement.