The Birkirkara local council has remained without a mayor after political parties failed to reach on an agreement on who is to become mayor. Given that both the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party have a tie with Council seats, it is up to the elected independent candidate to make a deal with a particular group over the mayorship of the Council.
Initially, the Labour Party approached the elected independent candidate Kaylocke Buhagiar and offered him the vice-mayorship with their top-winning candidate, Yana Debono Grech proposed as mayor. Kaylocke Buhagiar refused this arrangement despite getting less votes than Yana Debono Grech. Then, the Labour Party proposed Kaylocke Buhagiar the mayorship with Yana Debono Grech as vice-mayor. When this proposed arrangement went to the vote, Yana Debono Grech voted against it.
At a first glance, one would assume that Yana Debono Grech has a legitimate reason to object to her own party’s arrangement. She has garnered up to 1990 first preference votes with Kaylocke Buhagiar garnering only 990 votes.Why is Kaylocke Buhagiar refusing Labour’s arrangement if he got much less votes than Yana Debono Grech?
Labour Party sources in Birkirkara have informed me that Kaylocke Buhagiar was compelled to resign from the Labour Party after a grueling rivalry as a Labour Party councilor with the Debono Grech faction who lead the Council with Yana Debono Grech’s mother, Joanne Debono Grech being the mayor. Joanne Debono Grech is the daughter of the previous Labour MP Joe Debono Grech.
A young and rising Labour Party politician, Kaylocke Buhagiar was viewed as a threat by the Debono Grech faction and made his work difficult with petty and internal squabbles leading him to contest council elections as an independent candidate. His record result for his hometown as an independent candidate is a testament to his previous work, but the Debono Grechs have a very strong foothold in Birkirkara which they won’t be giving up so easily.
The matter could have been resolved easily if the Labour Party had intervened and managed it accordingly. However, Yana Debono Grech is also part of an ongoing process within the Labour Party where children inherit their parents’ constituencies. This effectively blocks further renewal within the party, as political power becomes concentrated among families. This trend mirrors practices seen in the Nationalist Party.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
Leave a Reply