PN ‘ready’ if government calls early election

The Nationalist Party has shifted into election mode, putting activists, volunteers and electoral commissioners on standby as it prepares for a possible early vote, Times of Malta can confirm.

Sources close to the party said activists and workers have been placed on high alert over the past few weeks, with some of them pulling late nights at Dar Ċentrali to work on strategy and logistics while others hit the streets to meet people and fundraise.

They said the electoral manifesto is “nearly complete” and could be published within days if Prime Minister Robert Abela pulls the trigger on a snap election.

“Everyone is at their stations and ready to hit the ground running the moment an announcement drops,” one source said.

“Every week, we’re telling our people to prepare as if the election will be announced that Sunday,” another source said.

“If Abela blows the whistle, everyone knows what they have to do. He can do it if he wants to… we’re ready.”

The current legislature is not due to end until this time next year and the election date remains the prime minister’s prerogative but rumours of a looming early election have been swirling for months, and, now, with a raging war in the Middle East and some polls showing a tightening gap between the parties, both Labour and the PN are taking the rumours more seriously.

Times of Malta reported yesterday that the Labour Party’s strategy team has been meeting regularly to prepare for the possibility of a snap election. They said they are optimistic that a pledge to carry out several projects, together with international instability, will work in their favour.

They also said that work on the PL manifesto is progressing and that the electoral campaign will focus mostly on bringing out the “young vote”.

Sources close to the PN, on the other hand, said that Alex Borg and his close team are more focused on recapturing the non-voting population.

They said internal research and strategy is focused on the “pale blue” voters – disgruntled Nationalists who either defected to Labour or stopped voting entirely after 2013.

Sources also confirmed the campaign is being spearheaded by Simon Vella Gregory, who was appointed campaign manager following Borg’s election as party leader last year.

Sabine Agius Cabourdin, the party’s first-ever CEO, is coordinating human resources and financing, while Borg’s head of secretariat, Damien Spiteri, is “coordinating people’s contact with Borg”.

Engineer Simon Mizzi is leading the research efforts to identify which demographics require the most focus and university lecturer George Vital Zammit is tasked with completing the electoral manifesto, “which is in a very advanced stage”.

All surveys carried out in recent months indicate Labour is heading towards a fourth consecutive electoral victory over the PN but the people at Dar Ċentrali are betting heavily on Borg’s personal appeal to lead the charge.

Strategists believe the young Gozitan leader is best positioned to act as a “champion” for the youth vote, a demographic the party hopes will find him more relatable than previous leaders.

In an interview with Times of Malta last November, Abela all but dismissed the possibility of an early vote, as rumours at the time suggested a potential March 2026 election.

Apart from the election date, the prime minister also has the privilege of choosing the length of the electoral campaign – between a minimum of 33 days and a maximum of three months.

The Labour government called an early election in June 2017, nine months before the due date, and then in March 2022, three months before the expiry of the five-year term.