Claudio Grech has been appointed as the new president of Valletta FC, following the approval of  his group, 1943, during the second part of the club’s annual meeting that was held on Thursday evening.

His group was one of the three bidders that was hoping to win the club member’s approval amongst the other contenders which were former club sponsors, Insignia and Britain’s Club Underground. Grech’s group received  unanimous support ,which allowed the former member of parliament to become the president of the capital’s football club.

Claudio Grech replaces Alexander Fenech who had been part of the Valletta FC committee ince 2019 and served as club president of the capital club for the past three years.

According to the manifesto, Grech’s group consists of several businessmen who will be investing significant funds to help the team return to the Maltese top-flight. Valletta FC is determined to bounce back after a disappointing season that resulted in the senior team’s relegation from the top division for the first time in the club’s most recent history.

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Once again ,Floriana finds itself at a standstill over the selection of a new mayor, this is after the town’s five councillors failed to agree on who would be named the town’s new mayor.

After the  most recent elections in Floriana, there was a division in the results, 43.64% of the vote went to Labour, 31.01% went to the Nationalist Party, and a significant 16.67% went to independent candidate Nigel Holland. Holland held the balance of power with two council seats each for Labour and PN as a result of this arrangement.

After the meeting, PL councilwoman Sandra Sammut Hili posted on Facebook to declare that the two PN council members and Holland voted against her nomination, which resulted in her being rejected as mayor.

The PN’s inconsistent position in various localities is brought to light by this stalemate in Floriana. In Birkirkara and Mellieħa, the party defends its claim to the mayoralty, having gained a plurality but not a majority. However, in Floriana, the situation is reversed , and the PN takes on quite a different stance.

Ellul stated that the PN had purposefully decided not to submit a mayoral candidate this time. He outlined the position of the PN, which is that the largest party need to be given the chance to aim for a majority before attempting to reach a compromise. However, in other areas such as Mellieħa and Birkirkara, where the PN insists on claiming the mayorship based on plurality of votes, this attitude is in sharp contrast to what they expect.

In Keeping with its assumption that the party with the relative majority of votes would win the mayoralty, the PN declines to support the Labour candidate; yet, its council members have also declined to support Holland, a seasoned local politician who has held the office before, as mayor of Floriana

The deadlock calls into question Malta’s political systems, as Floriana may have to hold new elections every three months to choose an interim mayor. The country’s electoral system, which was created to deliver definite majorities, finds it difficult to take into account the subtleties of more varied public environment. While a winner take-all strategy guarantees stable national governments, in more delicately balanced local circumstances, it might cause chaos.

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