To go back to basics, the reason we hold elections is so as to decide which team gets to govern us, that is gets to tax us, since democracy is based on the “no taxation without representation” axiom....

A lot has been said and written about the Malta Labour Party’s proposal to introduce what it says is a reception class right in between the last year of kindergarten and the first year of primary schooling....

The election campaign started off rather quietly, with both major political parties and the two smaller ones concentrating on the proposals they were submitting for the Maltese people to consider. ...

They have a lot in common, although the way they think is diametrically opposite....

The pro-Labour Party media described it as “organised hostility”, while the pro-Nationalist Party media naturally made the most of the overwhelming support Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi received at the University last Monday....

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has made it a point several times to state that the government has not been perfect, but at the same time it has done enough to be given the mandate for another term in office....

The news that Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical arm, last week upgraded Malta’s gross domestic product growth from the provisional 4.1 per cent to 4.3 per cent for the third quarter of last year is certainly a boost for the government....

After the EU issue, and the environment issue, the economy comes next. For many people it may even come first, but anyway....

It may just be a coincidence, but the decision to hold the election on 8 March does carry a lot of significance. ...

The strategy behind Alternattiva Demokratika’s election campaign was clear even before one of its local councillors, Rene Rossignaud, decided to call it a day and spill the beans last Wednesday....