The Malta Independent 7 July 2025, Monday
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Extended Term of office for local councils

Malta Independent Sunday, 14 September 2008, 00:00 Last update: about 13 years ago

The government is considering extending the terms of office of local councils to either four or even five years, following consultations on the reform of local councils.

As a result, the once-yearly local council elections may soon be a thing of the past as the government is considering either holding local council elections once every two years, thus extending their term of office to four years, or even holding them all at one go in conjunction with the European Parliament elections, thus extending their terms of office to five years.

Speaking to The Malta Independent on Sunday, Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said said that most of those who took part in the consultations agreed that the three-year term is too short. The government will decide by November, with December reserved for the drafting of the Bill and January for the debate in the House of Representatives.

Apart from removing the once-yearly local council election with one third of the population going to vote and all the hype surrounding it, the government is also considering making local council elections less formal, and thus less costly, than at present. In particular, this could mean doing away with the delivery of voting documents to every household, reducing the number of electoral commissioners and perhaps even adding up the votes in each locality once the election is over.

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