|
Matthew Vella
“Is-sewwa jirbah zgur,” is a call which veteran councillor and long-standing Nationalist supporter Albert Rizzo no longer recognises as his party’s own, as he faces possible orders of suspension for disagreeing with a directive issued by the PN’s administrative council.
“I sincerely believe that what Eddie Fenech Adami used to say is no longer valid today,” Rizzo told MaltaToday about what he sees as an injustice in his regards emanating from within the PN quarters. Locked in a stalemate for the election of mayor in the Gzira local council, the PN majority in Gzira is steeped in the long-standing feud between Rizzo and Ian Micallef, both of whom have been nominated by their acolytes to be elected mayor.
The PN will have nothing of it, according to Albert Rizzo, a seasoned councillor who since 1994 was always returned to the local council as an independent candidate until he decided to contest the 2003 general elections on the PN ticket.
Speaking to MaltaToday, Rizzo said a directive issued by the PN administrative council ordered the PN councillors to vote for Ian Micallef as mayor of Gzira, threatening with suspension on the very evening those who would not abide by the directive.
Earlier this week on Thursday, the five-week long deadlock meant the eldest member on the council, Labour councillor Anthony Abela, had to be elected mayor for three months until another vote for mayor is taken, after six rounds of votes. It was a repeat performance of the 2001 scenario when Labour councillor Twanny Buhagiar, had to be elected mayor as the eldest councillor, in an identical situation.
PN councillors with the highest number of votes are not necessarily elected as mayors automatically, unlike Labour councillors. Rizzo believes that this only serves to “accommodate” select individuals, surmising whether some form of “blackmail” is at work. In the last local council elections, contesting on the PN ticket, Rizzo garnered 878 votes, the highest number, and for the first time also surpassing Ian Micallef.
“I expected that a clear line would be drawn now since we are all working for the same Party. I just didn’t realise what was going on behind my back. In the PN, the councillors elected with the highest number of votes are not automatically chosen as mayor. I believe that in this case, I have a lot of experience and since I got the highest number of votes I should be supported in my nomination for Gzira mayor.”
As the PN infighting showed no sign of lessening, the administrative council also attempted to have Rizzo and Micallef serve a term each of one and a half years, which Rizzo refused. A second proposal offered Rizzo to serve one term of a year and a half, whilst Barbara Buttigieg, who nominated Ian Micallef for mayor, would serve the remaining term.
“When the vote was split, we were summoned again to Joe Saliba’s office. Malcolm Mifsud [President of the PN college of councillors] was also present. We discussed the situation again, and then we were taken out of the office one by one, and spoken to for five minutes. As I told Saliba, I would consider reverting to an independent candidate as I had personally told Tonio Borg earlier on. Malcolm Camilleri, who nominated me, told Saliba he would remain loyal to me in the whole affair,” Rizzo said.
“Back in 1994, Ian Micallef came to see me to ask for my vote to support his nomination for mayor, saying that Eddie Fenech Adami wanted him as mayor. Since then, trouble has always been brewing,” Rizzo said, who contested as an independent after feeling ‘left out’ by the PN at the outset of the local council elections back in 1994, when possible candidates were being scouted by the Party.
Always a PN supporter, Rizzo said that in 1998 he sought advice from Lawrence Gonzi on whether he should contest as a PN candidate for the local council. “He told me that given my popularity with both Nationalists and Labourites, I would be serving the Party well by contesting as an independent. In 2001, I met up with Joe Saliba on a possible candidature for the PN. We met up for a bite next to Manoel Island, where he told me that Ian Micallef and Barbara Buttigieg had told me it was either them or me.”
But Rizzo expected to be elected mayor after joining the PN clan, being the top PN candidate this year with the highest number of votes, after being brought on board when Eddie Fenech Adami invited the Gzira councillor to contest the 2003 general elections:
“Four week before the 2003 general elections, Fenech Adami told me that since I would be contesting as a PN candidate, in that way having to become a PN local councillor, there would be a PN majority at Gzira so a vote of no-confidence would be passed against the Labour mayor. He asked me whether there would be any problem in this regard, but I promised allegiance and said I wasn’t interested in being either mayor or deputy mayor until the term expired in 2004.
“All I want is that justice is done. The fact that a councillor with the highest number of votes is not automatically guaranteed of being supported as mayor is a loophole which serves to accommodate who they wish,” Rizzo said referring to the PN administrative council.
|
