'Convince your friends to collect their voting document,' Abela tells Gozitans
The PL’s 100 proposals for Gozo show that a Labour government will continue to view the island as a priority, PM says
Robert Abela on Wednesday called on his supporters in Victoria to give him a new “mandate for Gozo” by voting for all the candidates on the Labour Party’s ticket.
“Four years ago we were given the best mandate for Gozo ever..... I now need you to convince all those who have not collected their voting document to do so,” Abela said on the penultamate day of the electoral campaign.
Gozo is the district with the second most uncollected voting documents- around 14 per cent.
Political parties have until Thursday night to convince voters before the electoral campaign ends. They cannot campaign on Friday, known as silent day, or Saturday- the day of the vote.
In 2022 the PL won around 54 per cent of the first count votes in Gozo- a district that till 2013 voted in favour of the Nationalist Party
Speaking at a rally, Abela said that the Labour Party was the natural home of Gozitans, adding that the party’s track record while in government was proof of that.
He said the Nationalist Party took Gozo for granted - a position, he said, the party still held. On the other hand the PL had changed Gozo for the bettter “from darkness to light”.
He said the Gozitan economy had grown and become an “economic motor” worth a billion euros. Most of that growth stemmed from the professional sectors.
The government’s “island of villages” strategy for Gozo has linked economic growth with economic stability, and instead of balancing economic needs with environmental ones, the two now go hand in hand, he said.
“Our identity is our strenght,” Abela said.
The success of that strategy, is now being replicated in Malta via the PL’s manifesto ‘Int Malta’ -which focuses not only on mantaining economic growth but well being.
The PL’s 100 proposals for Gozo show that a Labour Government will keep considering the island as a priority, Abela said.
He listed some of the party’s headline proposals for the island, including modernising the Gozo general hospital, refurbishing all schools, building a new interconnector between Malta and Gozo, and making Gozo ferry trips free for pedestrian passengers.
He also pointed out that as of Wednesday, all of the island’s pblic bus fleet is electric.
Former deputy leader Daniel Micallef also spoke at the event.
Micallef was among a slate of PL and government officials who left their posts following the European Parliament elections; however, the former party official is known to have played a significant back-of-the-house role in this electoral campaign.