I’m searching for some excitement in this electoral campaign. For an electoral campaign to kick off in the middle of Carnival is perhaps appropriate. Elections may be a time for laughs but it is also time for some severe weeping.
I have still five years to go before I am 50, but all I can say is that much has changed since I turned 18 and voted for the first time in 1981. Oh yes. The violence and the hooliganism has disappeared. And that is very important.
And today, the election campaigning is taking place in a landscape of relative tranquillity. And with probably the largest segment of undecided voters.
And yet, the players in this election are using the same old tricks to convince the electorate that they are their right choice.
Dr Sant may appear frail, but he is a resilient man and he has every intention to hang on until 8 March, which is understandable considering that he has steered his party in opposition for 14 long years.
His battlecry is that the PN is past its expiry date and he emphasises that this party is riddled with corruption. The very sad thing is that he is very right; the PN has been long past its expiry date, and that there has been corruption is very true.
But… there is a big ‘BUT’.
The question to ask is whether the Labour party, with its team, is in a position to guarantee anything different. It will probably fall into the same trap after some time and repeat what the Nationalists have ended up doing after donkey’s years in government. Nonetheless, Sant is going out of his way to reaffirm that he has a zero tolerance policy for any wrongdoing.
“These are my friends,” he told ecstatic Labourites packed like sardines in a mass rally. “But if any one of these friends acts incorrectly...,” Sant said, going on to give the impression that he would behead any of his colleagues if they acted incorrectly! Hmm… What about Michael Woods?
There is little doubt that the PN has an uphill battle to convince undecided voters. The slogan GonziPN is perhaps a Russian roulette approach to things. There is little doubt, as one top insider said, that Gonzi is their only asset. To have such a self-conceited logo is proof of how difficult the Nationalist Party is finding it to convince the undecided voter.
As he addressed a press conference yesterday morning introduced by Simon Busuttil, I could not help feeling sorry for the MEP. Simon B. stood there motionless, probably wondering what the hell he was doing there; a successful lawyer and a promising MEP directing questions instead of writing opinion articles to be pasted right beneath Alfred Sant’s peice in The Times. But then I fully understand the value of using Simon Busuttil and his good looks, instead of Parliamentary Secretary Tony Abela.
It is true that Lawrence Gonzi has achieved much for the economy and it is true that when it comes to achieving results, he should be awarded high marks. But do people really care when their spending power is down?
One good German friend put it to me succinctly by referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She said Merkel has been talking of a buzzing German economy, but in their hands Germans have less spending power. The results are signs of ailing support for Merkel in the polls and regional elections.
But the biggest problem Gonzi faces is his gargantuan task of literally asking his ministers to stay away in the closet until judgement day on 8 March.
Yet, in his elegant presentation, Lawrence Gonzi is by all means the right person to get out and meet with the traditional Nationalist voter, most especially those who for the last five years have lamented about their government. There are few exceptions, perhaps a Jo Said here and a Carmel Cacopardo there. Most blue-to-the-core Nationalists will return to the fold.
In their final assessment, the Nationalist voters will forgive their government for their sins and go for Gonzi after all.
But those who have little or no affinity to the PN and simply supported the PN because there was no choice, and who owe nothing to the Nationalists, will find the PN’s campaign lacklustre. They will also be thrown off their feet by the very “Nationalist” flavour to the campaign. Many of these voters were encouraged to vote for the PN because of Europe and more so because of the mediocrity within Old Labour.
The PN’s campaign simply reminds voters that the Labour party has not changed. But is this is entirely true? Surely, some things have changed.
The Nationalists know that they can only win the next election if they bring back undecided voters. They have aimed all their flak on Alfred Sant and Charles Mangion and strangely not a plastic bullet for Michael Falzon. Indeed, they try and portray Michael Falzon as a New Labour exponent who is being side tracked by the Labour party.
If that is the case, thank God for that. Now I understand why Nationalist bigwigs continue to refuse to criticise Michael Falzon.
In the end, the undecided voter can move either way depending on the political gaffes and the ability of one party to magnify political blunders and make it look like ‘an end of the world’ scenario.

sbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt