Election Desk: A glitch in the manifesto

Welcome to the Election Desk. This is where we round up the major headlines of the last 24 hours, together with some of the more light-hearted and funnier sides of the campaign trail.

A thousand promises

The PN’s manifesto is now public. Before we get into the more humorous news about it, here are the headline pledges so far. The PN is pledging four new hospitals, the first line of a mass transit system, and an offshore fuel hub at Hurd’s Bank. There are also promises of income tax cuts, a child trust fund, extended maternity and paternity leave, and a new school every year. 

PN vs the machine

The PN launched its electoral manifesto on Monday with the usual fanfare. The manifesto itself lists 1,000 promises across 16 sectors, but if you don’t want to read through them all, they also launched an AI chatbot that answers your questions about it. It turns out that the chatbot is also very good at finding internal contradictions.

The manifesto lists two different renewable energy targets for 2030: 30% in the energy chapter and 50% in the innovation section. When voters tried using the PN’s own chatbot to clear up the confusion, it dutifully flagged the conflict itself. Points for honesty, but probably not the campaign launch the PN had in mind. 

The PN has since clarified that the correct figure is 30%.

PN initially pledges a 30% target

The manifesto later lists a 50% goal

Round two

Abela and Borg faced off for a second time in two days on Tuesday morning, this time at a debate organised by the Malta Chamber of SMEs. This was less football-terrace energy, like at Monday’s university debate, and more ‘coffee cups and polite applause’. 

Abela came out swinging on economic stability. He pointed out numerical errors in the PN’s manifesto, including in the pledge for an LNG terminal at Hurd’s Bank, which he said went from generating €450 million to €350 million overnight, before appearing in the manifesto as generating nothing at all in its first five years. On a separate pledge for the space sector, Abela said the projected revenues appeared to have multiplied by 25. “Is it falling from space?” he joked. 

Borg hit back and accused Abela of dressing up stagnation as stability. He argued that Labour failed to develop any new economic sectors over the past decade, leaving the country dependent on niches created when the PN was in government. He also raised questions as to whether Abela is really the one in charge, pointing to cases where he said cabinet ministers had blocked the prime minister’s own proposals. 

Both leaders also spent a fair chunk of the debate accusing each other of plagiarism. Abela repeated a jibe about the PN’s manifesto failing a Turnitin check, while Borg said Labour had copied everything from the succession tax to free cancer medication.

Robert Abela and Alex Borg faced off again on Tuesday morning. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Chalk and talk

ADPD used Tuesday to lay out its education proposals. The party’s central demand is to lift what it calls a “colonial-era gag” that requires educators to seek permission from the ministry before speaking publicly on education policy. Gauci said it is contradictory to expect teachers to foster critical thinking in children while being silenced themselves.

Beyond that, the party is proposing smaller schools, a more relaxed curriculum, cooperative rather than competitive learning models, and raising the compulsory education age from 16 to 18. 

ADPD's Mario Mallia and Sandra Gauci presenting the party's proposals on education. Photo: ADPD