Election Desk: Free energy, free loans, free of any actual details

Welcome to the Election Desk. This is where we will round up the major headlines of the day, together with some of the more light-hearted and funnier sides of the campaign trail. 

Galdes calls foul play: It’s been a wild start to the campaign for Roderick Galdes, whose electoral run was blocked by the PL’s top decision-making body.

Galdes lost a second, decisive vote after a first ended in at tie. He's now challenging the first vote, claiming one person (who we understand is his district rival Silvio Schembri) voted despite not being eligible to do so. Will Galdes get his way, or will this move just turn the party against him? 

Proposal-watch: Labour was first to come out with proposals, kicking things off by promising first-time buyers interest-free loans covering a quarter of the value of your property - but only if you make under €40,000 and plan to buy a property valued at less than €300,000. For couples, it’s means-tested at €60,000 joint income on properties below €350,000.

Is anyone finding decent properties at those prices, though? Asking for a friend (friend = every person I know under the age of 35).

The party is also pledging six months of maternity leave and a month’s worth of paternity leave.

Adrianeconomics: The PN are not being quite as concrete in their proposals. In the PN’s first presser of the campaign, shadow finance minister Adrian Delia said the party would invest in alternative energy that will bring energy prices “so low we will not need subsidies”.

We don’t know which alternative energy they’re looking into. Maybe the PN’s energy consultant is the ghost of Nikola Tesla talking to them about free energy. Let’s hope they manage to elaborate on this in the future.

In a later rally, Alex Borg revealed some more proposals, mostly new and expanded hospitals across Malta and Gozo and a promise for free cancer meds. 

Third-party watch: We now have the slogans and branding for some of the third parties. On Momentum’s side we have Bidla ta’ vera (“Real change”) and the subheading, “For a fair and beautiful Malta, free from control of the major parties and developers”. A bit of a mouthful, perhaps. ADPD kept things simpler with a one-word slogan: Ilkoll (“Together”). 

ADPD's campaign slogan.

Momentum's campaign slogan.

Banning the banners: A quick update on the Momentum banners that were removed two days ago.

The cleansing department said that, since the banners were put up before the election campaign began, they had actually been put up illegally. Momentum argued that the department was being selective and noted that the spots its banners took up have now all been taken up with Labour's. Momentum has since filed a police report for the theft of its banners. 

Momentum's Santa Venera banner is up again. Photo: Arnold Cassola.

What’s on today?: Robert Abela is off to Gozo for an interview at 6pm at Sannat’s Pjazza Santa Margherita. Meanwhile, Alex Borg will be campaigning in Mellieħa this evening.