Hopefully, by next week, bar a couple of days for celebrations, it will all be over.

There will be a victor and a loser, and that’s it. (Unless, the Maltese electorate chooses to go the Italian way of deciding not to decide, with interminable and very difficult negotiations on hypothetical coalitions).

And that will be that.

Whoever wins will set about the task of governing the country. Whoever loses will retreat in a corner to lick his wounds and recoup.

As for the rest of us, there will be an end to the mass displacement of people every Sunday afternoon, rain or shine. There will be an end to events every evening.

Obviously, there will be no end to discussions on the media but meanwhile they too will scale down.

And, again hopefully, there will be an end to the uncertainty that has enveloped Malta over the past year and a half while the Gonzi government teetered and then fell.

This country urgently needs to get back to normality where people can work, can plan ahead and can concentrate once more on creating wealth and doing worthwhile things with their lives.

The growth that this country has registered over the past years has not come out of the sky: it has been achieved by fulltime dedication of so many individuals, by risk-taking by so many individuals and by the good and proper decisions being taken at all levels.

It is a growth that has enabled Malta, a small country without any resources except that of its people, to continue along the growth path where so many other far bigger economies faltered and stumbled.

It is a growth that has enabled Malta to register one of the lowest unemployment figures in the entire eurozone and to create jobs and more jobs.

Of course, nothing is perfect and one can make a huge list of things that still need to be done, or things that should have been done in a better way, or challenges which lie yet ahead of us.

The past months and weeks have seen the election campaign turn into a mud-wrestling tournament of charges of sleaze, of personal vituperation and worse. The advent of the social media has turned the campaign into one huge participatory maelstrom of comment and opinions, not all of which are acceptable in a democratic society.

So it is time to call closure on all this. There may be many who relish an election campaign with all the disruption it entails. But others, maybe in a greater number, are far better off with a normal lifestyle, with a normal week, with the simple pleasures of relaxation especially on weekends. All this craze, this coming and going, these mass events deeply disturb them.

Inevitably, there will be a loser. Here’s to hoping that the victor will be magnanimous in victory and that personal property and even lives are protected by the forces of order. And to hoping that the rule of law is respected and enforced no matter who the perpetrator is.

The exercise of one’s right to a vote is an important right of every citizen and the elections, coming at regular intervals, are an exercise of democracy that is invaluable to any country. For it is good that those on top once in a regular interval feel themselves held to account and asked to explain their decisions. And it is equally good for people who believe they were given short shrift to come forward to demand justice.

But as much as this is a vital right and it is good to be exercised, so too it is good to see it coming to an end.