Time line

Pre campaign week
27 Jan – Sant back in action in general conference after his operation the previous month. Outlines reception class proposal

28 Jan – PN attacks Sant’s reception class proposal, calls it a ‘repeater class’

30 Jan – Sant pledges to re-open negotiations with EU on dockyard on Disett

3 Feb – AD invites both parties for coalition

1st week of the campaign

4 Feb – Lawrence Gonzi announces election: GonziPN campaign starts with a bang

5 Feb – Lawrence Gonzi announces across-the-board tax cuts

5 Feb – PN attacks MLP’s overtime proposal by quoting Charles Mangion saying in an interview that overtime will be paid at an hourly rate; Mangion denies saying these words. Later it emerged that Mangion had not read interview before it was published.

7 Feb – MLP lashes at Tonio Fenech for donations to private company from good causes fund. Fenech sues for libel and picks on Harry Vassallo’s son for attending Juventus game. Later, he apologises

7 Feb – PN general council approves electoral programme with heavy emphasis on green issues

8 Feb – MLP approves electoral programme, repeats same proposals, leaving PN to set agenda

7 Feb – Tonio Fenech refuses to divulge the workings behind the PN’s proposal to overhaul the income tax bands “to avoid them being copied by the MLP.”

8 Feb – AD costs Gonzi’s tax proposals at €125 million

2nd week of the campaign

13 Feb – Gonzi promises to take responsibility for MEPA

13 Feb – Gonzi excludes coalition with AD

13 Feb – Columnists in English language newspapers warn against instability

14 Feb – AD councillor Rene Rossignaud resigns on Valentines Day.

15 Feb – Children charity refuses donations from Angelo Xuereb after he had put a billboard promising to close open centres

16 Feb – Cacopardo reveals Sant’ Antnin report, earning rebuke of MEPA Auditor and Ombudsman but getting lots of coverage in the MLP’s media.

16 Feb – AN lashes out at single mothers

17 Feb – MaltaToday’s survey puts MLP 2% ahead

3rd week of the campaign

23 Feb – Alfred Sant attacks PN for planning to abolish junior lyceums

24 Feb – Louis Galea denies any intention to close the junior college.

25 Feb – MaltaToday reveals that four AN candidates are involved in court cases, one of them in a case involving money laundering

25 Feb – MaltaToday survey shows PN in the lead for the first time

4th week of the campaign

25 Feb – Georg Sapiano clashes with Alfred Sant on reception class on Bondiplus, cornering him to say that the reception class will not apply to private schools.

25 Feb – On the same programme Sant claims that De La Salle had introduced reception class. The claim is denied by Brother Martin Borg

27 Feb – MLP reveals Ministry of Health 2004 report proposing fees for public health services. The report claims that the cabinet agreed in principle with the report but would not implement it because of political underpinnings.

27 Feb – Lawrence Gonzi brought back from Gozo on military helicopter to deny MLP claims

27 Feb – AD reveals Audit Officer Joe Falzon’s report which deems the approval of Charles Polidano’s supermarket in Safi illegal. DCC board A resigns

28 Feb – Lawrence Gonzi and his cabinet sue Sant for libel over “liar” and “corruption” comments.

28 Feb – Gonzi accepts auditor’s report on illegal safi supermarket

29 Feb – Lawrence Gonzi promises to resign if his government introduces fees on medicines.

30 Feb – Alfred Sant reveals that Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando is the owner of a tract of land in Mistra where MEPA had issued an outline permit for an open air disco.

PN highs and lows

High notes
The GonziPN gamble paid well for the PN in the first three weeks of the campaign. The PN banked on Gonzi’s reputation for integrity and on his charisma to divert attention from unpopular ministers tainted by corruption allegations.
The party also banked on a presidential contest between an affable Gonzi and a stern Sant. In this way Labour’s constant attacks at the hidden ministers started to slip against new face of Gonzipn.
By promising to take MEPA in his own hands while including many green proposals in the PN’s electoral manifesto, Gonzi also managed to appeal to the potential AD voter.
The PN’s parallel negative campaign depicting Sant as a dangerous menace kills two birds with one stone: those tempted to vote Labour and those tempted to vote for AD. The more people are scared of Alfred Sant, the less likely they are to vote for a smaller party.
By presenting tax cut proposals benefiting the middle classes in the first week and addressing environmental issues in the second week, the PN took away the initiative from the MLP.
While the MLP dictated the agenda in the pre-electoral campaign by promising to remove taxes on overtime and to halve the surcharge, the PN reserved a number of policy proposals for the campaign itself.
During the first two weeks of the campaign Gonzi seemed to have successfully adopted Sant’s motto: who dares wins.
The PN also managed to hype up two significant misjudgements by Sant; his promise to renegotiate the EU treaty with regard to the dockyards, and Labour’s innocuous but half baked reception class proposal.
In so doing the PN managed to present Sant as a threat to stability and a source of uncertainty for parents concerned with their children’s education.
Once again on Friday’s Xarabank the Prime Minister managed to blow up the reception class proposal out of proportion by depicting it as a threat to the children’s future.
In their campaign against the reception class the PN successfully exploited negative traits in the Maltese psyche which views education as a rat race and an extra year in school as a wasted one.

Low notes
Although effective, the GonziPN campaign had all the ingredients of a personality cult which could be unpalatable for some in the party’s liberal wing.
With no national issue at stake – unlike 2003, when the election determined Malta’s place in Europe – the chorus of PN-friendly columnists scaring people from voting AD had vacated the moral high ground.
The GonziPN motif also shielded the party from constant attacks on errant Ministers, but there was a price to pay: Gonzi found himself constantly challenged for not standing up to them before the electoral campaign.
The PN’s final blow came on Wednesday when the PN faced a two pronged attack by the MLP and AD.
On Wednesday sant produced a Health Ministry report states in clear terms that “The Cabinet has agreed in principle to this concept but fees for Maltese citizens will not be introduced for the moment due to their political underpinnings.”
Although the report only confirms that Gonzi had resisted all pressure to introduce charges on health services, it made a mockeryGonzi’s earlier claim that the cabinet had never discussed the imposition of any such fees.
Gonzi contained some of the demage on Xarabank on Friday by promising to resign if he is re-elected and his government breaks the promise to introduce fees on medical services.
But the Prime Minister’s commitments on MEPA were immediately taken to task by an Audit Office report published by Auditor Joe Falzon at the instigation of Alternattiva Demokratika, which deemed the approval of a supermarket in Safi illegal.
Falzon’s damning report was even more damaging to the government because it was authored by the same person who, just two weeks before, had reprimanded Carmel Cacopardo for publishing a report on the approval of the Sant Antnin plant.
The PM had no choice but to accept the auditor’s recommendations giving a new legitimacy to AD’s instrumental role in taking this case to the MEPA Auditor.

MLP’s highs and lows

Highs
Corruption was the MLP’s trump card throughout this campaign. Surveys show that while 26% trust the PN to tackle this issue, 42% prefer Labour. The MLP also successfully conveyed the idea of a “tranquil change” personified by the innocent ballerina on its first bill boards.
Although less charismatic than Gonzi, Sant committed very few blunders in what emerges as the most sanitised MLP campaign in recent history. The party also managed to convey the idea of a team diverting the focus from Sant himself. Paradoxically while the PN stood to gain by hiding its ministers to show Gonzi, the MLP stood to gain by showing Sant with his lieutenants.
The MLP managed to take back the initiative last Wednesday by revealing a damning report which states that the cabinet agreed in principle with the introduction of fees on health services but would not do so because of the “political underpinnings.”
The second consecutive knock out was delivered on Saturday when Alfred Sant managed to undermine Gonzipn’s green credentials by exposing Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando as the owner of a tract of land in Mistra earmarked for an open air disco.

Lows
The MLP’s paralysing fear of losing votes at the very last moment resulted in a very bland campaign which lacked the sparkle of the PN’s slicker campaign. By wasting most of its policy ammunition in the interlude between the budget and the electoral campaign, the MLP campaign floundered as the PN started dictating the agenda.
Sant’s only two mistakes in the campaign were his pledge to re-open negotiations with the EU and his handling of educational issues. Both boomeranged causing massive damage to the MLP’s attempt to portray itself as a business as usual party.
Surely the PN’s attack on the reception class proposal will go down in history as an attempt to score points by turning educational in to political football. Yet Alfred Sant’s counter attack on educational colleges ended up creating more uncertainty and apprehension among parents.
Sant’s defence of the rigid streaming between junior lyceums and secondary schools was also a throwback to the past.
The MLP’s present leadership team pales in comparison with the more assertive trio of George Vella, George Abela and Alfred Sant in 1996.
Michael Falzon’s antics during recent mass meetings provided fodder for PN acolytes on Youtube. And although widely perceived the MLP’s business friendly face, Charles Mangion also gave fodder to PN scaremongering when he was quoted saying that Labour would pay overtime at an hourly rate.
Although Charles Mangion denied making this statement, his admission that he did not see the article sent to him before publication lent further steam to the PN campaign. The final blow on this issue came when the PN revealed that workers at Super One where paid at an hourly rate.

AD’s highs and lows

Highs
Carmel Cacopardo – the former Nationalist stalwart who converted to AD after MEPA refused to renew his contract as investigator in MEPA’s Audit Office – is the AD’s star candidate this time round. He also serves as a role model for former Nationalists who are finding a new home in AD.
Cacopardo was also instrumental behind AD’s two major stunts during this campaign: first by publishing the Audit report on the Marsascala recycling plant, then by divulging another report by the same audit office on the approval of Charles Polidano’s supermarket in Safi.
Ironically, while he earned a reprimand from his former boss for publishing the former report, he was handed a gift by the same Falzon two weeks later when the latter chose to give a copy of his investigation to the complainant (AD) after MEPA failed to add its comments.
Cacopardo also managed to get exposure for AD in the Opposition media, being mentioned a number of times by Alfred Sant himself and cited in an MLP advert.
Apart from Cacopardo, AD’s Gozitan secretary general Victor Galea and deputy chairman Mario Mallia also stole the show in a number of pre electoral TV debates.

Lows
AD’s major weakness in this campaign is its reliance on the liberal wing of the Nationalist Party, which could still be wary of the risk of Labour winning by default.
AD’s call for a coalition boomeranged the moment Gonzi was asked the question whether he would accept a coalition with AD.
By excluding a coalition with AD, Gonzi closed the floodgates for AD sympathisers who would like to vote for this party but would not take any risks on Labour being elected.
Although damaging, Rene Rossignaud’s resignation letter attacking his own party for trying to trying to take votes from the PN was at best naïve and at worst too orchestrated to be effective.
Apart from the core green vote, AD’s electorate in this election seems restricted to liberals who are not scared shitless of the prospect of a Sant government.
The fact that there are is no big issue like EU membership at stake favours AD.
Overall, AD leader Harry Vassallo was inconsistent in the campaign: sparkling at times but betraying signs of anger and frustration at others.

AN’s highs and lows

Highs
Azzjoni Nazzjonali has emerged as the most focused and ideologically consistent party in this electoral campaign. The party’s very simplistic vision of life, its exploitation of base xenophobic instincts and its pandering to the hunters’ vote could appeal to red-neck dissatisfaction. As the other parties become more Europeanised and politically correct, the “party of Josie” also manages to speak like Mintoff while offering neo-liberal economic solutions.

Lows
Ironically Azzjoni Nazzjonali’s political incorrectness and crassness could be its major electoral asset in a campaign where all three political parties struggled to occupy the centre ground of Maltese politics. Still, AN’s core beliefs often contradict the party’s declared Christian sensibilities. Angelo Xuereb’s billboard, in which he promised to close a church run open centre in Balzan, is a case in point.
AN’s lowest point in the campaign was MaltaToday’s revelation that four of its candidates are facing proceedings in court. One of the cases involves a candidate involved in money laundering.
This revelation has tarnished the party’s law and order profile.
The party was also embroiled in Angelo Xuereb’s private troubles as a businessmen and contractor.