Labour will be elected if people do not vote or choose AD - Gonzi

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday people who do not vote this election and those who choose Alternattiva Demokratika will be contributing to the election of the Malta Labour Party to govern the country for the next five years.

Dr Gonzi was replying to a question by The Times during a political debate organised by the Malta Broadcasting Authority on TVM, the national television station.

The Prime Minister, who has already ruled out a coalition with any party, was asked what decision he would take if the MLP had to win 32 seats in Parliament, with the PN winning 31 and AD winning two. Dr Gonzi replied that AD would form a coalition government with the MLP. He added that, in view of this, people who do not vote and those who vote for AD would be indirectly electing the MLP to office.

Dr Gonzi, who was fielding questions from six journalists, called on the MLP to make a public apology to those Nationalists who were told they had something wrong in their DNA. This was a serious statement that divided the country rather than uniting it, especially at such a delicate and crucial moment. Replying to another question by The Times, Dr Gonzi said the MLP promise to halve the surcharge on water and electricity would be detrimental to the country's economy and the public finances.

On the other hand, the PN is proposing to inject €46.6 million (Lm20 million) into the economy through its proposed tax cuts, which would give people more spending power and create more economic growth. The target set by the government to close off the 2010 financial year with a surplus will be reached.

Dr Gonzi vehemently denied the existence of a Cabinet memo in which his government had proposed to introduce charges for health services. On the other hand, when in government in 1998, the Labour Party had expressed its intention to start charging social cases at Zammit Clapp Hospital for their stay there as well as for the food they consumed and the ambulance transport they used.

Dr Gonzi spoke on a number of other issues such as the definite contracts of government workers that have been changed to indefinite, the MLP's reception class proposal through which, he insisted, children would repeat a year before primary school and so finish school a year later, and a PN proposal to change the law with regard to cohabiting couples.

Dr Gonzi said that whenever he or any of his ministers had any suspicion about possible corruption or wrongdoing, they always reported the matter to the police or to the Permanent Commission Against Corruption. He expressed disagreement with the proposal made by Labour leader Alfred Sant's during an activity on the University campus that corruption cases should be investigated by the Prime Minister. "There are institutions in Malta meant to conduct investigations and we leave this work up to them", he said.