Floating voters will not be faced with an easy choice at the next election if they continue to opt for one of the two main parties.
As things stand, they must choose between a party hollow of political principles and another still devoid of policy ideas.
We have a party that has ditched rectitude and honour to look away from the abuses that sucked its values dry. And another whose development is stuck in electoral disaster gear, stunted by indecision and lack of direction.
The choice to be made is between a Labour Party that has lost its socialist soul and a PN that has yet to find its identity and remains rife with infighting. Meanwhile, surveys show that the smaller parties are making almost no inroads at all.
This situation is deeply dissatisfying for voters who would like to have a substantial choice to make at the next election, whenever it is that the prime minister will call it.
For the voter guided by principles, it will be difficult to cast a ballot in favour of extending the life of this government.
Notwithstanding the (slow) progress in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case and the charges of financial crimes brought against some officials once deemed ‘untouchable’, Labour expresses no contrition for the multiple sins of its recent past. Neither does it take action against those still within its ranks who might have committed some of those sins.
Recently, for example, it was revealed that a number of sitting cabinet members incredibly failed to scrutinise a 2017 deal worth nearly €300 million, now found by the national audit office to have breached procurement laws.
One minister faces the most shocking claims against him, another was revealed to have gifted an unqualified friend a €5,000-a-month contract. And so it goes... All remain in place, shielded by a prime minister desperate to prevent more skeletons tumbling out of Labour’s closet.
Labour has not yet offered a proper apology for the killing of a journalist, a crime that took place on its watch, conceived and carried out in the climate of corruption and criminal impunity fostered by Joseph Muscat’s government.
On the other hand, floating voters are bound to be disappointed if, by now, they were expecting to see a confident, competent alternative government emerging from the opposition benches.
The PN continues to sit on the fence on many issues, seemingly persisting with a strategy of placating its grassroots while forgetting the floating voters that actually do win you elections. As Labour’s laissez-faire policies wreak havoc on the environment and built heritage, the PN has failed to convince that it would act any differently if elected. As asylum seekers are subjected to inhumane treatment in detention centres and migrants are left to flounder in the Mediterranean, the PN has lost the opportunity to plant its flag firmly on the side of humanity.
In setting the election date, Robert Abela will no doubt seek to take full political advantage of a COVID-free, recovery-on-track scenario.
This would have been brought about by the partial shutdown, the good supply of vaccines and generous government aid, which has saved companies and jobs. But COVID-19 recovery would be a false, even though persuasive, platform on which to run the electoral campaign.
Sadly, too many voters will stick religiously to the party they have always voted for, come what may. Too many continue to be driven by narrow personal interests at the expense of the country’s long-term interests.
Floating voters are in dire need of choices at the ballot box who can end the stream of scandals, restore the country’s political values and inspire with their economic and social vision.