It was a bad decision in the first place. It was even worse after the local council election results were made known.
The Nationalist Party’s decision to withdraw its candidates in the Marsa and Zejtun local council elections was doomed to fail right from the start. And it did.
Soon after the move, it quickly emerged that there were several exponents from within the same PN who were against the decision. Some spoke out in public against it, others preferred to toe the party line but, in private, expressed their disapproval. Critics normally associated with the PN were also against the party’s decision.
The independent media criticised the PN strategy too. In this newspaper’s leader of 14 February, we described it as strange and a sign of weakness. “The PN has shot itself in the foot on this one,” we concluded.
No doubt, the decision was taken to mitigate the electoral loss the PN was predicting in last Saturday’s local council elections. But, in spite of the move, the PN was still defeated heavily in last weekend’s polls and, therefore, there was no mitigation at all. If anything, the MLP’s victory was bigger than anticipated.
It can never be determined whether more people voted for Labour – in other localities – because of the PN’s decision to withdraw its candidates. But it can be said that the PN strategy worked against it.
What’s more, if the MLP obtained a 53 per cent support against the Nationalist Party’s 44 per cent without the Marsa and Zejtun elections, what would have happened if elections were held in these two localities as well?
MLP leader Alfred Sant estimated that Labour would have obtained at least 57 per cent of the vote, while the PN’s 44 per cent would have dropped even further. By these calculations, there would have been at least a
staggering 15 per cent difference between the two major parties.
With or without the Marsa and Zejtun elections, the PN suffered a great loss which will be hard for the party to overcome. It was the third party defeat in the last nine months – a clear sign that there is a clear shift in favour of the MLP.
The PN defends itself saying, in the words of Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, that it prefers to take difficult decisions in the interest of the country. But, all in all, the people cannot welcome long-term plans, however good they might be, if they are in difficulty today.
The party has now also decided not to divulge to the people what led to its move regarding the Marsa and Zejtun local councils. This happened after the PN general secretary, Joe Saliba, had said the party would reveal what led to such a decision. Yet, last Sunday, Dr Gonzi said the PN will not be disclosing its “secret strategy”. In a comment given to TMID yesterday, Mr Saliba said he would be foolish to go against Dr Gonzi’s wishes.
This is another sign of confusion within the PN structures. When the general secretary of a party says he is going to do something and is then pulled back by the leader it means that there is a lack of communication between the two.
Had Mr Saliba known of Dr Gonzi’s wishes beforehand, he would not have said that the PN would have made its strategy public.
Comparing what happened in Zejtun and Marsa with not fielding candidates in Fontana is another mistake. With all due respect to the Gozitan village, Zejtun and Marsa carry more political weight. And, secondly, it is one thing not to field candidates and another to field them and pull them out at the last minute for whatever reason.
The PN has now said it wants to analyse the results of last Saturday’s results to see what is wrong.
It must, first of all, become closer to the people and, while, yes, having long-term plans is good, it must also address their day-to-day needs.