Prints off a local campaign (2)

Zurrieq, Thursday evening. It is the end point of the campaign and perhaps for that reason the crowd gathered under the "tent" set beside the impressive village church is larger than usual. We had been here the previous Monday on a whistle stop tour, Maltese style, and promised to return, as a show of solidarity with Zurrieq's councillors, who were attacked by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi for having spent money "irresponsibly". Perhaps that was another reason for the larger than usual crowd... We reviewed how the campaign had developed and what the two sides had stood for during the past weeks. Points local and national were made, as is normal on such occasions. I was impressed by the optimistic mood of the people in attendance. Later, my friends and I visited the two Zurrieq band clubs, where - at least so I guessed - people were just as interested in the upcoming Good Friday and Easter celebrations as in the political stand-off. We enjoyed some pleasant conversations.

Later still, on Thursday. The improvised Super One studio in the assembly hall at Labour's National Centre. Between 10 p.m. and midnight, on the eve of the "silent day" before polling, once again the issues raised during the campaign were reviewed. Almost all Labour council candidates attended. Features and comments by invited guests alternated with input by outgoing mayors about the work conducted in "their" localities. The programme ended on the stroke of midnight.

Zebbug, on Sunday before last. I released a copy of a letter written to the Resources Authority by the permanent secretary of the ministry overseeing it. In that letter, the permanent secretary bluntly ordered the authority's chairman to issue forthwith - by 2 o'clock of that same day - the confirmation of a licence to operate a petrol station at the limits of Mellieha.

This had already been the subject of controversy but, interestingly, most of the media ignored it. As it happened, people at Mellieha and elsewhere thought the matter was quite serious.

They were unconvinced by the government's pathetic efforts to make the letter to the Resources Authority sound like routine administration. People still understood that under the present administration, "friends" are there to be helped at all costs. In the following days, the issue remained a flashpoint at Mellieha.

Saturday, election day. The practice is for party officials to visit polling booths and local offices to make sure things are running smoothly. Just as we arrived at Pembroke, the news came that the Gozo Channel regular service was disrupted because one of the two available ships had developed a technical fault. The remaining boat was operating on a shuttle basis, with the next departure roughly due in 25 minutes time. We left immediately for Cirkewwa and made it in 20 minutes, only to be told that the boat was just leaving. We filled the time till the next shuttle departure by visiting St Paul's Bay and Mellieha.

Saturday night. Faxes streamed into my machine with data about results from the localities involved in elections. All presented the same story - a swing in Labour's favour that prevailed across the board, both where Labour had a majority and where we had a minority of councillors. Obviously, by withdrawing their candidates from the Zejtun and Marsa races, the PN had thought they could reduce the Labour majority on polling day to less than 50 per cent. It was not to be.

Early on as the counting started at Valletta, a fax duly confirmed that Labour would surely be surpassing the 50 per cent figure of votes, even with Marsa and Zejtun out of the polling picture. The end result showed that if these two localities had been allowed to vote, Labour's vote would have topped 57 per cent. Perhaps that was the whole point of the PN's "secret" strategy, not to let their "share" of the poll fall below 40 per cent.

Sunday noon. Flanked by Michael Falzon and Charles Mangion at a televised press conference, I made the obvious claim that the Saturday election result amounted to a vote of no confidence in the PN and a vote of confidence in Labour (though not all media reported the second half of my claim...). Distance from the people, lack of delivery and arrogance determined the abysmal showing of the Nationalists. In less than a year, Dr Gonzi has led his party through three successive defeats - quite an achievement.

Sunday evening. As the Prime Minister summed up his side's conclusions on the poll result, I frankly could not follow his argument. On the one hand, he stated that the PN suffered last Saturday because it is implementing tough but "responsible" national policies. In the same breath, he said or seemed to be saying that one cannot extrapolate from the local elections to the national level, because most people must have voted on local issues.