Labour Party’s huge election victory came as no surprise and has confirmed consecutive survey results that had given it a comfortable lead over the Nationalist Party.

Various factors have contributed to Robert Abela’s first massive electoral victory as prime minister and Labour’s third successive landslide win.

Over the past couple of years, after winning the party’s leadership race and becoming prime minister, Abela has retained his popularity among traditional Labour voters by his promise of continuity from his disgraced predecessor, Joseph Muscat.

He has demonstrated a reluctance to denounce Muscat, whom blinkered Labourites and party faithful continue to hold as their idol despite his shady behaviour and tarnished legacy.

Abela himself is personally indebted to Muscat and his wife for their indispensable help in defeating Chris Fearne, who was the favourite in the leadership race. In fact, Abela has exercised caution and kept back from kicking Muscat out of the Labour Party, unlike what he did to Konrad Mizzi.

Under Abela’s premiership, the abuse of public funds has continued. He even honoured the shameful contract given to Steward Health Care by his predecessor that led to a massive waste of taxpayers’ money. This year, the Labour government will be paying an additional €70 million to the company, bringing the total amount injected since 2018 up to €300 million.

During its five weeks as a caretaker government, Labour exercised its power of incumbency to the maximum. Two weeks before voters went to the polls, it sent out €70 million through two cheques, one a tax rebate and the other compensation for the increase in cost-of-living. People received cheques ranging from €160 to €235 each.

The power of incumbency was also heavily made use of by individual ministers through phone calls made from their offices to voters falling within their electoral districts, where people were asked whether they needed anything. In addition, these same ministers launched government projects and initiatives in their respective electoral districts.

The Labour government owes much of its popularity among the electorate to the biased reporting in its favour by the politicised state broadcaster and this was intensified during the pre-electoral period, giving the Labour Party a considerable edge over the Nationalist Party.

All members of the board of directors and editorial board of PBS are appointed by the government while the head of news is known for her pro-Labour bias. The 8pm news bulletin on Television Malta in particular gave extensive coverage to Labour, at the expense of the PN.

Persons with a lower level of education as well as the elderly, who tend to rely mainly on the state broadcaster for their information, are those who have been mostly duped by PBS and it is precisely among these groups that Abela enjoys his highest trust rating.

However, the greatest disadvantage of the Nationalist Party has been its public image as a broken, weak and deeply divided party, compared to a more organised, united and financially stable Labour Party.

During its five weeks as a caretaker government, Labour exercised its power of incumbency to the maximum- Denis Tanti

This image has persisted in the course of the past legislature as the PN went through continuous internal strifes and factionalism that threatened its very existence.

Hardly had the party 2017 electoral defeat been announced than an onslaught was launched on party leader Simon Busuttil by a number of party insiders. Mario Galea, then a Nationalist MP, publicly accused his leader of adopting an authoritarian leadership style and turning the Nationalist parliamentary group into a rubber stamp.

The situation continued to deteriorate after Adrian Delia took over as party leader.

While Abela stood up for his disgraced predecessor despite his tainted past, Delia foolishly called upon Busuttil to suspend himself from the party’s parliamentary group. He also summoned the party’s administrative council that unanimously approved a motion calling upon the former party leader to step down.

Quite astoundingly, the council went to the extent of initiating internal disciplinary action against Busuttil with the scope of suspending him from the party.

Kristy Debono and Hermann Schiavone, then MPs, also declared their support for Delia’s decision regarding Busuttil’s suspension while Galea accused fellow Nationalist MPs of believing they have a divine right to lead the party.

Delia eventually changed his decision in the wake of a revolt by the party’s parliamentary group and fears of a party split and later even admitted that he had been wrong in asking Busuttil to step down.

While Labour projected itself as a united front, taking care not to wash its dirty linen in public, everyone was talking about the divisions within the PN as Delia clung tenaciously to his leadership and publicly declared that he would never trust some of his MPs.

It has been virtually impossible for the new PN leader, Bernard Grech, to heal the existing divisions within the party in the year and five months that he has been at its helm, particularly since his job was by no means made easy by a number of his MPs.

After Galea withdrew his PN candidature on the very first day of the election campaign on the basis of his unsubstantiated claim that he was taunted about his mental health by persons close to the PN’s leadership, he took the liberty of addressing a Labour conference with the electoral slogan ‘Robert Abela 2022’.

The PN must put its house in order without delay if it wants to be an effective opposition and a true alternative government that can offer a real challenge to the present scandal-ridden Labour administration in the next election.

Denis Tanti, former assistant director, health ministry