MaltaToday is reliably informed that the Nationalist Party had realised just two days before the close of the election campaign that Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando had lied when he had stated that he had known nothing about the proposed development of a discotheque in Mistra.
PN officials told this newspaper they were petrified at the prospect of the Labour party spilling the beans about the entire episode in good time to build a media campaign before the end of the campaign. As soon they realised what had happened, they kept the self-styled ‘environmentalist’ politician out of the loop.
Thankfully for the PN campaign, Alfred Sant revealed the private contract, signed by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and the lessee of his land in Mistra, which contained the reference to the development of the disco, only Thursday night during a debate between the two leaders.
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi emerged from the debate unscathed, as Sant’s fleeting reference to the contract, which he momentarily waved to the camera, had not been emphasised enough by the Opposition leader.
On the day of the broadcast on TVM, the mass meetings for both Labour and the PN at Luxol and Floriana were taking place.
But the timing was such that the deeply embarrassing revelation, which effectively outed Pullicino Orlando as having lied about his ignorance of the disco development in Mistra, could not be reported the next day by the press due to the silent day of reflection.
Most PN leaning voters could not have known about this revelation, which might explain why Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando was elected from two districts, a massive sympathy vote from PN grassroots voters.