Qormi mayor Josef Masini Vento, who publicly and vociferously criticised Labour Minister Miriam Dalli, was re-elected on the Labour ticket and increased his personal vote tally.

Masini Vento, a notary by profession, was the most popular labour councillor in Qormi following last week’s election. He gained 1,466 votes, much more than the 815-vote quota needed to get a seat and about 100 votes more than what he got in 2019.

While Labour retained its majority in the locality, albeit with a reduced margin, Masini Vento was re-elected mayor, being the most popular among his fellow Labour councillors. His closest challenger, Xandru Mallia, obtained 1,137 votes.

Sources told The Shift that although the Labour administration pulled all stops to boost other candidates and remove Masini Vento, the strategy did not work.

In a video clip of a 2022 local council meeting, which The Shift published, the Qormi mayor is seen getting visibly angered and clashing with councillors over the introduction, without consultation, of a BCRS plastic bottle return machine, which, according to him, turned his locality into a dump.

The scheme, introduced in November 2022, has been controversial since its inception. It obliges a €0.10c fee for every beverage bought in a plastic receptacle that must be returned to the machines installed in different localities for a return on the funds. The machines only accept bottles from particular brands, usually those held by companies behind the scheme, leading to disgruntlement.

Venting his frustrations, he called Minister Dalli, who introduced the scheme, “one of the most incompetent Labour ministers and a clown” and insisted that she should immediately resign instead of manoeuvring to take Robert Abela’s position as prime minister.

During the same council meeting, which was eventually suspended, Masini Venti confronted his deputy mayor, Donnah Barbara, a canvasser for Dalli and her private secretary at the energy ministry. Barbara did not contest this time.

He also called Barbara another clown who only had a job due to her friendship with Dalli and challenged her to tell “her minister” that she was an “incompetent clown” and should be ashamed of herself. Barbara left the meeting shortly after.

Masini Vento told fellow councillors that, unfortunately, Labour had reduced its supporters to lackeys of ministers trying to take advantage of their connections as much as possible.

Labour sources told The Shift that Masini Vento’s re-election with a stronger mandate was another mistake by the party’s top echelons that tried to remove him.

The Shift is informed that Masini Vento’s stand in the video published worked in his favour. He emerged as someone standing up for the locality rather than bowing to a minister.

The sources added that ministers’ performance failed to satisfy their supporters, resulting in the government losing popularity even among its members.

Meanwhile, Minister Dalli is facing renewed criticism over power cuts across the island on Sunday.