A clear indication that the campaign for the forthcoming General Elections (whenever they may be held) is in full swing is the fact that the “dirty tricks” departments of the main political parties in Parliament have kicked off in earnest.
The latest electoral polls leaked to sister newspaper Illum showing that the Labour Party (MLP) has a 14,000 vote majority over the Nationalist Party (PN) obtaining 52.4 per cent of valid votes cast – confirming the trends shown by earlier opinion polls and the last four rounds of local council elections – surely must have sent the blue boffins at Tal-Pieta’ into overdrive.
A no-holds-barred character assassination campaign against the Labour leader has started in earnest, with overt and covert references to Labour leader Alfred Sant’s age and physical attributes.
The most hard-hitting comment, as usual, came from columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia, although not an official party rep, who in the past has shown no hesitation in toeing the Nationalist Party line when pushing comes to shoving.
In an article entitled “Growing Old Gracelessly”, published in The Malta Independent on Sunday on 29 August 2007, Daphne gives an encore of “The Wig” rant against the Labour leader.
“Alfred Sant is 60. If a 60-year-old man gets run over by a bus, the television news tells us that it happened to a ‘ragel anzjan’. He has been leader of the Labour Party for 20 years and prime minister for 22 months.
“And yet he insists on presenting himself to the electorate as the new and coming man, with his party of nodding dogs colluding in this silliness. Next year, he will be officially classed as elderly, eligible for both a ‘Kartanzjan’ and a pension, but he continues to tell us that he is young and thrilling.”
An electoral campaign attacking the physical attributes of a rival politician is usually interpreted as a clear sign that fresh ideas are in short supply and panic is oozing from the mind.
On the other side, the Labour Party has not resorted to attacking physical attributes of Government politicians so overtly, but has been unflinching in attacking Nationalist politicians and their alleged misdeeds.
The latest “pet hate” for Labour politicians and their media is Former Nationalist Minister and current Water Services’ Corporation (WSC) chairman Michael Falzon, who has been in the Opposition’s limelight ever since Industry, Investments and IT Minister Austin Gatt, in a letter to the WSC Board of Directors dated 9 August, highlighted cost overruns in a number of contracts awarded by the Corporation related to the construction of waste treatment plants in the North of Malta and in Gozo.
The letter was only revealed when Falzon tendered his resignation as WSC Chairman on 17 August citing “an astounding lack of trust” by the Minister, only to withdraw it a few days later after patching up with Gatt.
The latest outburst against Falzon was during a press conference by Labour leader Alfred Sant at Balluta Bay on Friday to complain against the legal dispute between the Department of Public Health and the WSC over sewage that is seeping into the bay from an outfall in the area.
The Labour leader recalled that the issue of sewage seeping from the Balluta Bay has been going on for many years now and if it wasn’t such a serious matter it would have turned into a farce.
He distributed to journalists a picture of a much sprightlier Architect Falzon way back in September 1990, at the time Minister for Development of Infrastructure, jumping into Balluta Bay to assure the public that the sea was not contaminated. The same man is now entrusted with making sure our tap water is free from drainage and other toxins.
“A volte, ritornano…”

Have you noticed anything interesting related to the electoral campaign? Then send an e-mail to Charlot Zahra at czahra@mediatoday.com.mt

Read also Michael Falzon’s opinion page 15