Not back to square one!

At the time of writing this contribution it is the eve of Election Day, while at the time of when it is read, everybody will probably know the result.

No prizes for those who guess which party will get the majority of votes this time round, of course. As fate would have it, the issue has been reduced to the size of the gap between Labour and the PN.

I thought the PN’s campaign was slick and smart, even though the message was not inspiring enough to switch enough voters to the PN. It also presented a good group of new young and promising candidates; which speaks volumes about its future. But it was undoubtedly not enough to swing the country in its favour.

Yet one would be wrong to dismiss the PN as never having the chance to recover from the doldrums. No doubt the PN will make yet another electoral post-mortem, which it will then probably proceed to ignore, if the past is any guide to the future.

It does seem that people are more willing to forgive Labour for its mistakes than to forgive the PN for its mistakes. Do people expect a higher level of propriety from the PN than they expect from Labour? I do not know really, even though sometimes it seems like that to me. Perhaps this is an isue that is worth researching scientifically!

If the gap between the two parties is appreciably narrowed, the PN would even have the temerity to sing a victory of sorts, with the hope that the tables will be turned in five years’ time.

That sort of result will not be big news for Labour’s Robert Abela. Comparisons with Joseph Muscat’s record election results will be made, even though the circumstances of the last three elections are completely different, and – frankly – such comparisons are not fair on Abela. But fairness is not part of political perceptions anywhere in the world, let alone in Malta.

If the gap between the two party’s votes is narrowed, the situation of Abela’s ‘other adversary’ – Joseph Muscat - is the next interesting issue in Maltese politics. Muscat did not contest the election but his influence was palpable with Labour candidates using him to boost their personal chances and the Prime Minister ignoring him constantly and completely.

In spite of this influence, although the election result would give Abela the right to perceive a Labour victory as his own, he would still be in a bind. Muscat’s cunning strategy seems designed to lead to a positive outcome for him whatever the result. If the gap is narrowed, Abela’s achievment would be compared with Muscat’s electoral records... with Muscat winning hands down. If the gap is not narrowed, Muscat would be able to say – or to get other people saying – that were it not for Muscat’s outside support, Abela would not have achieved the result he got.

And this is the great conundrum that the election result will create.

How much will an Abela victory be perceived as his own victory? Will Abela have the strength and capability to rid his party of the great albatross round its neck?

This is where a real – albeit fortuitous – struggle begins within Labour, while the PN is once more licking its wounds.

Abela’s premiership was overshadowed by the pandemic in the beginning and by the Ukraine war in its end. Both circumstances were certainly not his fault but they both impinged on Abela’s way of governing. From an international perspective, the future does not look bright with price increases and international political turbulence on the cards.

Will history judge Muscat as one of the luckiest of Malta’s Prime Ministers while considering Abela as one of the unluckiest? These are pleasures yet to come, of course.

Will Abela manage to shake off – once and for all – the hankering for Muscat that still exists within a substantial part of the Labour party grassroots?

How will the result of the election affect Abela’s attempt to do so?

This attempt cannot be avoided, if Labour is to be saved from the depths that it had sunk to under Muscat.

This issue will define Abela’s premiership as from the minute he is sworn in again as Prime Minister.

Time will tell whether Abela’s other victory that led to his succeeding Muscat as the Labour Party leader was, in fact, just a poisoned chalice; or whether he will eventually be able to look back and brag about some achievments of his own.

Abuses galore

I have lost count of the abuses by the so-called ‘caretaker government’ that have taken place since Parliament was deferred. Not that this is something new.

In the early voting days, prisoners who lost their right to vote have voted, besides aged people suffering from serious dementia ‘voting’ in spite of – as one relative put it – not being able to distinguish between a glass of ‘Kinnie’ and one of tea!

Cheques were distributed galore with a covering letter signed by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance. Every home should have one – at least.

There were even unrefuted reports that a minister gave a promotion to his wife!

Since 1987, when I was appointed minister, I have been arguing that Malta needs a law regulating the transfer of power and another one limiting the powers of the government when it is acting as a ‘caretaker’ after Parliament is prorogued to allow for an election. Such a law must also have the backing of a Constitutional amendment.

Both the PL and the PN have abused of this power in years gone by and none of them has moved an inch to change the situation when they were in government. The only exception was Eddie Fenech Adami’s decision that no one can be given a government job during the period. But this was an ‘ad hoc’ personal decision, not a statutory legal provision.

It is a shame that when the PN was in power, no such law was enacted.

What is weird, this time around, is that these abuses were more than usual despite the fact that the winner of the election was never in doubt.

Old habits die hard, of course. But then Prime Minister Abela did not just want to win. He wanted to match his predecessor’s landslides.