The situation in Birkirkara's local council can be resolved through more dialogue, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Wednesday while answering questions from the media.

A meeting of the Birkirkara local council was held on Tuesday, in order to discuss and vote on nominations for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor, after a meeting held a week before resulted in the nominations put forward by both parties failing. Once again, no agreement could be reached by the councillors when it came to who should be appointed to the posts.

This time, the Labour Party proposed making the independent councillor, Kaylocke Buhagiar, the locality's mayor, but the PL candidate who received the most votes, Yana Borg Debono Grech, voted against the motion. The Nationalist Party's motion also failed, which means that as per protocol, the candidate who received the most votes from the party which received the most votes, in this case, Desirei Grech from the PN, will serve as interim mayor for three months, at which point the local council will meet again to further discuss nominations.

In the Birkirkara local council election, the PN received 6,021 votes and the PL received 5,280 votes.

The Prime Minister said that when the proposals from both parties had failed, the PL councillors made the choice to bring forward the independent councillor as a nomination, as the other alternative would have been a Nationalist mayor assuming the role. He acknowledged that Borg Debono Grech chose to vote against the PL motion, and he said that he understood her position.

"You have the person who received the most votes in the locality, and I surely think that it is the wish of everyone who voted for candidates of the PL as well as for the independent councillor, that the locality would be led by the PL," Abela said.

He continued that he also understands the position of Buhagiar in this situation. "They are both candidates who received a substantial number of votes, Yana much more, naturally." He remarked that he does not at all understand the position of the candidates and councillors of the Nationalist Party.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Buhagiar said that he would like to thank the PL councillors for nominating him to lead the Birkirkara council. He said that it would have been a council for all residents of the locality and that it would have been stable for all five years of the legislature. The independent councillor said that there would have been "balance between the big parties", and that the council would have focused on the interests of all residents. He noted that the residents of Birkirkara chose to elect six councillors from both major parties as well as an independent councillor.

Abela concluded by saying that looking forward, he believes in dialogue and persuasion as a means of working towards a solution.