We have now started the countdown for March 8, although I am sure that you want to see this date over and done with so that we can continue with our normal lives. 
There is no doubt to my mind that in the past week, Sant made a remarkable comeback and so far I can say that he has been very careful in what he utters. Let us hope that he stays focused till the end.
Gonzi on the other hand has discovered that there are informers within his closest compounds. Otherwise, how can anyone explain the report on the health services that found itself in Labour’s lap? And according to Sant, Labour has other sensitive data which so far it has had no time to make public. Gonzi will have a very busy week this week convincing the electorate that his party has no intention of charging for healthcare .  He must come up with a credible explanation as to why that report does not hold water.
His word is not enough: he has to do more than that even if it takes a commitment in writing that healthcare will remain free if he is elected as Prime Minister. This healthcare sensitive document was below the belt for Gonzi, and the floaters are still not convinced that his party intends to keep the health service free. It is therefore paramount to come up with a solution to the mess that Sant has put him in.
The way I see it is that this time round Gonzi and his party are not being as hard on Sant as they were in 2001.  Or it could also be that Sant is more focused this time.  However, I still feel that Gonzi and his party have not yet managed to rebut Sant’s promise to the people of transparency and of zero tolerance to corruption. 
It is true that Gonzi tells us to judge him on his achievements but it is also true that there are also Nationalists out there who are afraid that the arrogance showed by some members of his team will get stronger if re-elected to govern.
How Gonzi will this week manage to call Sant’s bluff I do not know; neither do I know how he will convince the people that a new term will mean a new team and a new approach. But it is his responsibility to come up with this recipe fast, as the clock is ticking and he does not have a lot of time on his hands. 
There is no doubt that so much of the Nationalists campaign is centred on their leader that they are building walls instead of spreading their wings.
Mind you, they need very strong walls because Alleanza Nazzjonali and Alternativa Demokratika are targeting the Nationalist Party relentlessly, with constant allusions to their flaws in the past 20 years.  However, they must not fall into the trap of being more defensive and less offensive.  So far I have seen the Nationalist Party as concentrating practically all its energy on defence with little or practically nothing to offer to rebut the parties in opposition.
It is not enough to get the message across to the diehards: the message has to reach the floaters. Cutting the surcharge by half is definitely sweet music to everyone’s ear, and the electorate wants to hear sweet music and the sweeter the music, the more the electorate is lured into giving your vote.  Cheap cross-debates do not catch votes: promising to tax less does.
I wish that all parties will tell us what, if at all, new taxes they have in mind.  Of course none of them tells us that, and no political party is that stupid to tell the electorate that.  Instead, each party tries to divulge what the other party has in mind with regard to new taxes; but we are left in limbo because such accusations are always rebutted.  
It is odd how each party boasts and promotes its pluses but its minuses are divulged by the opponents. Wouldn’t it be better if the political parties be bound by law to state the minuses as well in their electoral manifesto? Eureka!
So we vote on what we hear and read on information supplied by the media. Electoral manifestos are very hard to find here and they are only made available to the media and the constituted bodies.  Have you been blessed with a copy of the electoral manifesto of any of the political parties who are contesting these elections? I doubt it and if you ask me I tell you that I have only seen their cover on television and nowhere else.
But personally I feel that Labour is conducting a more aggressive campaign: it is allotting more airtime to this campaign on its television and radio stations than the nationalists on Net and Radio 101.
In fact, no political programmes are aired by Radio 101 after their six o’ clock news whereas Labour continues with the propaganda till late: be it on general elections or on the local council elections but the word is always elections. 
On the other hand I feel that there is less input by the Nationalist party in their propaganda machine.  Now it could be that they are saving the best for the last and this has now become synonymous with the Nationalist Party: that is, that of gaining momentum at the last metres of the race.  However, we must admit that the race so far is very tight although let us face it, after 20 years in power, Labour ought to be leading head on, and not practically on par.
I must also comment on the questions prepared by the journalists to our political leaders.  I am sorry to say that in most of them the questions show that little or no research is done and the subjects are usually those which we have heard ad nauseam. It is a pity how even the same subject, is tackled in the same way by most journalists and no effort is done to ask about the same subject, yes, but from a different perspective.
Even last Wednesday, the subjects were, once again, the remedial class, corruption, and overtime: so that the answers given by Sant were the same words he said when he was addressing his supporters the day before. 
The task of each leader this week is to keep us focused and this can be achieved by providing us with more information of what they have in store if they are given the mandate. We have heard ad nauseam about the remedial year, about transparency, about corruption (although let us be honest, corruption is here to stay and no party can govern without corruption. It can try to control it but it can never abolish it). 
We now want them to convince us why Gonzi is better than Sant, and why Sant is better than Gonzi  (with my apologies to AD and AN).