We can see signs of an impending election all around us.

The other day I saw candidates going round on house visits, groups of men walking purposefully together, while all around us we can hear the tom-tom of drums calling the tribes together.

Tomorrow, on May Day, the two parties (or movements as they prefer to call themselves today) will compete to see who has the biggest crowd.

And the country’s political atmosphere is at boiling point.

What we do know is that an election is coming. What we do not know yet is when it is going to be held. There were reports in recent days that it could be as early as June, which would wreak havoc with people’s plans for weddings and parish festas. Or it could be later.

With Malta being one of the countries without fixed terms (that is, unlike the US where voting is always held on the same day), the choice of an election date is the treasured prerogative of the prime minister who, like Theresa May for instance, can choose the day which is most favourable.

When the day is finally announced, we can draw our own conclusions. It is easy to speculate that the date of the election could be determined by private polls commissioned by the party in government. On the other hand, the date could be determined by other factors still unknown to us.

Certainly, to hold an election this early is unusual, that is, if it is going to be early. The question uppermost in many people’s minds is whether the date of the election has anything to do with the maelstrom of the past days and the allegations about the owner of Egrant, the previously unknown identity of the whistleblower regarding Pilatus Bank, and the manifold allegations linking these two strands together.

It would seem, at least seeing it from this perspective, that while the government side was particularly jumpy when the allegations had just been made by Daphne Caruana Galizia, once the identity of the whistleblower became known, the tension noticeably lessened. This can explain if the date of the election is not announced tomorrow and the election is not held in June. It will be laughed off as another red herring.

What is worrying, and this is not the first time it has happened, is that anybody who offers to be a whistleblower becomes subject to all kinds of slurs, attacks etc. I do not know if this particular whistleblower qualifies as a whistleblower in terms of the Whistleblower Act, but certainly, the Act should include automatic and irrevocable measures to protect the whistleblower. Otherwise, we are back to the Russian ways of dealing with uncomfortable people.

We can look back at the past two weeks and see the spike in tension since the allegations were first made and compare the tension then to the non-tension now. The difference is palpable.

From one whistleblower to another. The resignation of Dr Godfrey Farrugia as Government Whip is quite damning. It echoes very much what is many times argued by Marlene Farrugia, Dr Farrugia’s partner, to attack the Labour government. In a way, there was always some sort of expectation that Dr Godfrey would not contest for another term as a Labour MP. This does not automatically mean he will join Dr Marlene in the widened PN movement just created.

It will be more difficult for the government spin machine to cast doubt and slurs on Dr Godfrey than to damn the Russian whistleblower. For we all know and admire Dr Godfrey’s honesty and uprightness.

So is it now a straight finish to Election Day? It looks like it, although one cannot say what might still happen. To paraphrase Tony Blair (on the UK election), it is clear that the Prime Minister (Theresa May) will win but the country needs a strong Opposition to keep the government on its toes.

In our country’s case, the issues are darker and more threatening. Consider the interlocking network of selected persons (and only selected ones) with links to each other, defending each other while others are demonstrably outside the gilded circle, even if loyalty keeps them silent supportive. Consider too the many cases of unprofessional or even illegal behaviour openly confessed but about which no sanction was levied.

The government and the chorus of admiring rating agencies has been singing praise of Malta’s unprecedented economic growth, together with surplus et al. If I were a Labour supporter, I would be cautious about hoping for a second term, for the second term will bring out what we today in our euphoria do not see or are not allowed to see. The growth that is so declaimed today may find the wind is not filling its sails any more. Or the many apartments being built today may find they do not have any buyers. Or the government ranks staffed by so many last-minute recruits may find they are not worth their salt. What if Labour had won instead of losing in 1987? How would it have coped with the aftermath of the pre-election binge? And how would it have explained to the people the need for more austerity measures after feeding them on a diet of success and false hopes?

If the election is going to be a quick one, there is barely time to carry out the legal requirements, especially if it is going to be a short campaign, let alone allow candidates to focus on their districts, especially in the newly-configured ones. The parties that state they are ready to go to the country at any time are manifestly unprepared, especially the Nationalist Party which is still choosing and announcing candidates.

Any wind that shortens the timespan of this legislature is an ill wind. The normal lifespan of this legislature ends next spring and those governments who, for one reason or another chose to go to the people earlier – Eddie Fenech Adami in 1996, Alfred Sant in 1998 – or those who went later than usual – KMB in 1987, Lawrence Gonzi in 2013 – lived to regret it.

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