In less than a week’s time, residents in 35 localities around Malta and Gozo will cast their vote in the local council elections. Almost 200,000 individuals, that is practically half the country’s electorate, are being entrusted to carefully choose their preferred candidates in an election for councillors who will administer affairs in their towns or villages for the coming four years. Hopefully, the choice will not be just a partisan one. Rather it is (or should be) a careful choice for the right set of people who would make a difference in the places where they live.
Although the campaign may have had a sluggish start, it has now got going as the respective party machines gear up for next weekend’s poll. Although a very short campaign, a significant number of relevant and pressing issues have been raised, issues that one expects will be tackled head on once the new local administrations settle in.
Clearly, the number of uncollected votes is disappointing not only at party level. This reluctance to participate (or is it a sign of abstention?) could be the end result of a number of meaningful factors. At any rate this decreased participation is a clear reflection that there is still a long way to go to fully convince our electorate that their vote is the single most powerful tool for change even at a local level. Of course cynics will beg to differ yet there will always be only one effective way to endorse or disavow the work carried out in one’s locality and this is through one’s vote. When one abdicates this responsibility then he or she is displaying a lack of civil pride especially for the locality s/he lives in.
For a substantial number of councils, next week’s vote will be an opportunity for residents to reconfirm the steady and sterling work carried out in their neighbourhoods and communities. Not so in others. Internal strife, blatant mismanagement and mediocre delivery have taken their toll on the overall image of local councils, especially in such places. This utter disservice has gone a long way in tarnishing a carefully built collective perception that local councils have built in the past 19 years.
This is the first batch of local councils that will be going to the polls after the reforms enacted in the early part of this legislature – a set of changes that cover manifold aspects of a local council’s remits and responsibilities such as the environment, energy conservation, culture, social inclusion and a drive towards conservation and regeneration of our urban centres and green belts. These reforms have shed a powerful light on the sometimes-complex operations of these local governments, especially in the larger towns. These changes have enabled councils to become more transparent and in turn more efficient. This is evidenced in some of the more ambitious projects that have been carried out by the more energetic mayors and councillors of particular towns and villages.
Nineteen years down the line, local councils have become an integral part of most communities in Malta and Gozo. During this time, most of us as residents have had, at some point or another, some sort of contact with our respective local council. The wide public consultation that was carried out before the changes is proof of the lively interest many citizens have displayed with their effective participation in the process.
As a local councillor myself, and having participated actively in the reforms, I have, during these five years, become much more appreciative of the effects of a fully functioning local council. As time goes by, local councils are being entrusted with more responsibilities. Over the years, councils were seen solely as managers of public cleanliness and overseers of pavements and byroads. The €160 million allocated by this government over the last four years should dispel this very incorrect idea. Effective councils can and are being catalysts for change in many localities not only in terms of infrastructure upgrading but also in matters more delicate such as social inclusion for complex cases and the elderly, training, managing housing estates and sports facilities, and last but not least, the generation of external funds especially from the EU for a series of projects both infrastructural and educational.
The Nationalist Party’s electoral programme for these forthcoming elections is entitled ‘Localities for our Families’ (Lokalitajiet ghall-familji taghna) The programme covers a considerable number of goals and aspirations that it wishes to achieve especially where PN will have an effective majority. The PN strategy is based on a focused implementation of work that aims directly at helping families.
The Nationalist Party has been a champion of local councils from day one and remains determined to deliver an ongoing political project with clear and achievable goals. The local council electoral manifesto attempts to list these priorities in a clear and uncluttered fashion. In the introduction of this manifesto, the same Prime Minister reconfirms his wish to see stronger local councils with added responsibilities. He reiterates this support with his promise of directing more funds to councils. It is only through this financial funding that councils can achieve their goals and aspirations.
One understands that next Saturday’s elections are a very important exercise for our respective political parties. Yet beyond the political machinations of the vote, the choice of effective and responsible candidates should remain of paramount importance. Only in this way can the local council project live up to people’s expectations. I take the opportunity to wish all candidates contesting these local elections the best of luck and thank them for accepting to be of service to their community.
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