Scandals and plots take over

As scandals and plots mushroom, libel suits fly and tempers rise, many voters are perplexed at how the election campaign is developing in its last phase before polling day on March 9.

They are also bored stiff. The campaign has been far too long and in future it would be advisable for any administration to ensure that the country goes for a much shorter one. It will save much time and energy, not to mention money.

The campaign has now degenerated into a political squabble, with politicians more intent on unearthing graft and fraud than analysing points from election programmes or discussing issues that are vitally important to the lifeblood of the economy.

Most have already forgotten much of the argumentation over the Labour Party’s pledge to slash water and electricity, and Konrad Mizzi, the party’s energy expert, has now taken a back seat. What was billed as one of the most important pledges in Labour’s political arsenal has now been relegated to the bottom of the campaign agenda.

Labour’s ‘Malta Tagħna Lkoll’ (Malta for all) slogan has had an effect, as it attempts to encapsulate Dr Muscat’s philosophy of doing away with tribal politics. Certain politicians before him made a similar pledge, only to falter during the course of the legislature. It remains to be seen whether he will join them.

Equally effective as a campaign battle cry is the Nationalists’ insistence that their record in helping to generate jobs was the best guarantee that a new Nationalist administration could continue to do the same.

Indeed, they have set a target of 25,000 new jobs. Labour are making their own promises on job creation, but both theirs and the Nationalists’ could well fall by the wayside if Malta does not remain competitive.

Making most headlines are the oil procurement scandal and the suspected drug dealing case at a Labour Party club. Both raise very serious issues that cannot be swept under the carpet.

A great deal is being said about the need for greater political accountability, but it seems the two main parties practise what they preach only when it suits them.

Toni Abela’s post as deputy leader of the PL is considered by many – including this newspaper – to have become untenable and Dr Muscat is making one of his biggest mistakes in not recognising this, quite irrespective of whether it will cost him at the polls or not.

It is not up to a politician but to the police to decide if there is a case for anyone to answer for when a suspicion of a crime occurs. Dr Abela should have referred the case to the police immediately he was informed about it. The reasons he gave for not doing this are unacceptable.

The Labour leader is in a difficult spot too, particularly after it was revealed that he, too, had later come to know about the case.

Dr Muscat was unconvincing when he argued that he had been under the impression when he was first asked about it that the allegation concerned a different incident in another club.

It is understandable that politicians do their best to smooth things over for party supporters, but the claim at issue is not a minor misdemeanour.

Drug dealing is a serious crime. That the case is alleged to have happened in a political party club is of deeper concern and it has been dealt with in a most unsatisfactory manner.