Editing Malta (section)

===Administrative divisions===
{{Main|Local councils of Malta|Districts of Malta|Regions of Malta}}
[[File:Malta - administrative division.svg|thumb|[[Local councils of Malta|Administrative divisions]] of Malta]]

Malta has had a system of local government since 1993,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Local Council Act of Malta |url=http://www.maltadata.com/loc-act.pdf  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130616004627/http://www.maltadata.com/loc-act.pdf |archive-date=16 June 2013 |access-date=20 October 2013}}</ref> based on the [[European Charter of Local Self-Government]]. The country is divided into [[Regions of Malta|six regions]] (one of them being Gozo), with each region having its own Regional Council, serving as the intermediate level between local government and national government.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.lc.gov.mt/mediacenter/PDFs/1_Protocol.revised.pdf |title=Protokol Lokali u Reġjonali |publisher=Dipartiment tal-Informazzjoni|pages=5–6 |language=mt |access-date=2 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120617100535/http://www.lc.gov.mt/mediacenter/PDFs/1_Protocol.revised.pdf |archive-date=17 June 2012 }}</ref> The regions are divided into [[Local councils of Malta|local councils]], of which there are currently 68 (54 in Malta and 14 in [[Gozo]]). The [[Districts of Malta|six districts]] (five on Malta and the sixth being Gozo) serve primarily statistical purposes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Malta |url=http://www.aer.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/MainIssues/Regional_Democracy/AER_Regionalism_Report/Report_by_country/MALTA_2010.pdf  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130208122702/http://www.aer.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/MainIssues/Regional_Democracy/AER_Regionalism_Report/Report_by_country/MALTA_2010.pdf |archive-date=8 February 2013 |access-date=2 April 2015 |publisher=[[Assembly of European Regions]]}}</ref>

Each council is made up of a number of councillors (from 5 to 13, depending on and relative to the population they represent). A mayor and a deputy mayor are elected by and from the councillors. The executive secretary, who is appointed by the council, is the executive, administrative and financial head of the council. Councillors are elected every four years through the single transferable vote. Due to system reforms, no elections were held before 2012. Since then, elections have been held every two years for an alternating half of the councils.

Local councils are responsible for the general upkeep and embellishment of the locality (including repairs to non-arterial roads), allocation of local wardens, and refuse collection; they also carry out general administrative duties for the central government such as the collection of government rents and funds and answer government-related public inquiries. Additionally, a number of individual towns and villages in the Republic of Malta have [[List of twin towns and sister cities in Malta|sister cities]].