At the time of writing the outcome of yesterday’s snap election was just about anybody’s guess.

But once a victor has been declared and the dust has settled on what has truthfully been an ugly chapter in Maltese political history, one thing is for certain: come what may and irrespective of whoever is sworn in as Prime Minister, this newspaper will continue to hold to account whatever government is in power.

We say that this has been a particularly ugly chapter for good reason. This election was, after all, called under the most dubious of circumstances. It was the result of what some may have called ‘the greatest lie in Maltese political history’ and what others may call the greatest corruption scandal in Maltese political history.

Whatever the case, and whatever is proven true at the end of the day, one must admit that either scenario is a particularly ugly one.

And come tomorrow, if the Nationalist Party manages to pull off a reversal of fortune from the massive electoral deficit it was left with in the wake of the 2013 election there will be a flurry of investigations to be launched, there will be numerous contracts to be published and un-redacted, and there will be a plethora of alleged scandals that will be sifted through with a fine-tooth comb.

But just as we have continually held the Labour government to account over the last four years, so we shall with a prospective Nationalist government – just as we had done before 2013 – in that eventuality hold a Nationalist government responsible for its own pledges of good governance, accountability and transparency.

On the other hand, should the Labour Party succeed in its bid to hold on to power in the wake of this bitterly divisive electoral campaign, the fight against all that has been wrong with the government over this past legislature will not end here. Our efforts will be redoubled and our resolve will be stiffened.

The four years of gross misconduct that has been revealed, especially the gross misconduct that was exposed through the revelations of the Panama Papers and the leaks from agencies such as the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, will not be laid to rest by any stretch of the imagination.

This newspaper, and we are certain that we are not alone, will continue to push for the truth and the whole truth to come out, and we will not rest until justice is served.

During this electoral campaign, we have strived to ensure that the electorate has gone to the polls with the full knowledge of what has transpired under its very nose over the last four years. We have sought out the truth and we have reported the truth faithfully to the nation. This is, after all, our primary mission as a proud component of the Fourth Estate.

And, in so doing, our aim was never about the exigencies of one political party or another. We have attempted to ensure that the decision the electorate took yesterday was as informed a decision as possible. We may have failed in that respect to some degree, and we may have achieved that goal to some other degree.

We have done that because the way in which corruption has been hidden and ignored, and investigations and reports into that corruption have been shelved and never acted upon, does not in the slightest befit the modern democracy we purport to be. 

The way the government handled the whole Panamagate affair was a textbook case of burying one’s head in the sand until the storm blows over – to make some cosmetic moves, appear concerned about the situation but, in reality, to ignore it altogether until public interest dies out and it simply goes away. That, however, does not seem to be happening, and we will not allow it to happen.

What is most troubling about the whole affair is that the government failed a huge test in its accountability pledge, and many appear to have not even noticed. If there had been any will at all on the part of the government to tackle the abuses uncovered by the Panama Papers, there were plenty of ways in which it could have done that. But as we know by now, there was never any such will – only the will to close ranks, keep as quiet as possible and wait out the storm.

This publishing house in particular will not let sleeping dogs lie and we will continue to press the subject until the whole truth comes out and justice is finally served. Our readers and the nation as a whole can count on that.

And those who have done such disservice to the nation can, as the adage goes, take that to the bank.