The hastily published MLP manifesto, shot down by the PN in the run-up to the March 8 election, is now the cause of internal discord within Labour’s top brass.
After the document was approved at Labour’s general conference in the first week of February, sectional committees were informed that for them to get hold of copies, they were to deal directly with a printing press and pay for copies themselves. Apart from internal whinges on content quality and on the way the party chose to distribute the publication, it also attracted persistent flak from the PN side – a factor that partly contributed to the final electoral result.
Recognising that this issue came at the cost of internal controversy and lost votes, MLP executive members are now laying blame on each other for the howler.
Labour’s campaign manager Benny Borg Bonello, who is known to have led the team abridging the “Plan for a New Beginning” to compile it into the final manifesto, declined to comment.
Labour president Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi claimed that he was unaware of the decision to ask sectional committees to pay for copies. “I have personally distributed copies,” he said. “We first set a series of proposals for the Labour party, which were then approved by the executive. These proposals were then submitted to the general conference on the first Thursday of the electoral campaign, thus approving the manifesto. We then chose what media is most effective to propagate our ideas and deliver our message.”
Zrinzo Azzopardi added he was not present at the party meeting where secretary-general Jason Micallef claimed that he, among others, was responsible for the manifesto gaffe.
“Yes I have,” he said when asked whether he has been approached with information on what was said during this meeting, “but in such cases people would only provide bits and pieces of the story, the parts they find convenient.”
Contacted by this newspaper, Jason Micallef said: “First of all, I think I have a right to talk within the party’s internal structures. Other than that, please understand that I chose not to release any comments to the media until mid-June, on whatever issue.”
MLP executive member Wenzu Mintoff, who also seemed to have taken the blame by Micallef, said: “I had nothing to do with the manifesto. I saw the document a day before the executive meeting, after asking for it at my own accord. After seeing that the draft contained a large number of grammatical and syntax errors, I decided to proofread it. I submitted my version to the executive, on the eve of the general conference. However, the copy presented to delegates remained as I originally saw it, without any of the changes I proposed.”
Commenting on why the draft was approved at the general conference, in spite of its flaws, Mintoff said: “It was done hastily. In fact, copies were only distributed to the first four or five rows of the general conference, so only 20 or 30 delegates got hold of it. Unfortunately, the campaign team did not have enough time to create a document that entices the potential voter.”
Asked to comment on his being held responsible for the publication, Mintoff stated: “I will not accept hearing that Jason Micallef is doing rounds at party clubs saying that I drafted the publication. As I said, I asked for a draft, and it was handed to me by Benny Borg Bonello, the campaign manager.”

ddarmanin@mediatoday.com.mt