The Nationalist Party has accused the Labour Party of “once again” being “complicit in stealing the leadership of the Ħal Għargħur Local Council” after independent councillor Francesca Attard was made Għargħur Mayor with the backing of the Labour Party’s representatives.
The PN publicly deplored “the manoeuvres carried out by the Labour Party” in handing Attard the locality’s mayorship.
It stated that by making Attard mayor of Għargħur, the Labour Party “once again went against the will expressed by the people of Għargħur in the Local Council election two years ago, when yesterday it once again stole the leadership of the locality.”
Backing Attard, the PL’s Christopher Fenech was made Għargħur’s deputy mayor on Tuesday.
The Għargħur Local Council had an internal vote to settle its mayorship after Mariah Meli resigned from this position to fulfil her duty as a Member of Parliament following this year’s general election result. Meli was elected during the PL’s post-election’s casual elections, filling in Michael Falzon’ vacated seat on District 9.
Meli controversially became Għargħur mayor in May 2025 – just 11 months after the PN won the locality’s local council elections with 3/5 seats and a 62% share of the votes – after Francesca Attard resigned from the Nationalist Party, became an independent councillor, and voted alongside her PL councillors in a no-confidence vote to oust PN mayor Helen Gauci from leading the local council.
Gauci was elected as Għargħur mayor in 2024 with 869 first-count votes, which was more than the combined 759 votes attained by all four PL candidates who had contested the local council election. The locality’s election quota was 336 votes, meaning that Gauci steamrolled through. Meli, now a PL MP, was also elected on the first count, though with 433 votes.
Attard said she had departed from the Nationalist Party to be free of political pressure. Attard had retained her place as deputy mayor following the no-confidence vote and stayed in that position till she was made mayor this week.
Following this concerted effort, the Nationalist Party, through its leader at the time, Bernard Grech, demanded a new election within the locality to take place, arguing that the people should decide who and which party should lead the locality rather than for this to be decided in spite of election results through internal political manoeuvres.
“This clearly continues to expose the hypocrisy of the Labour Party, which claims to believe in democracy while, in practice, doing the opposite,” the PN said in a statement signed by its two Għargħur councillors, Helen Gauci and Marilena Galea.
In this statement, the PN councillors reaffirmed their commitment to all residents of Għargħur, noting that “despite this obstruction and theft by the Labour Party with the complicity of the independent councillor, they will still continue working for the residents who elected them.”
The Għargħur Local Council now comprises of Francesca Attard as its independent mayor, Christopher Fenech as its deputy mayor from the PL, plus Helen Gauci and Marilena Galea as its PN councillors and Emanuel Camilleri as the final PL councillor. Camilleri took Meli’s place recently after a casual election.