I would like to start this article by thanking my colleague Leo Brincat MP for his opinion piece, Talking of an election mode (TMID, 6 March), where he mentioned me and my visit to Mater Dei hospital. His piece led to six pale red voters joining the group, seeing the immense project and concluding that the Labour criticism of the hospital was unfair. The end result is that these six voters will now vote PN.

Two weeks have passed since the 10 March local council elections, and one had the chance to evaluate the results. We speak of messages sent and forget the trends developing in our society. A third of the voters opted not to go to the polls, for various reasons, ranging from the protest vote to just sheer indifference.

Both reasons have to be seen to, and, where problems exist, they must be addressed. It is clear, and confirmed after these recent polls, that the majority of the Maltese are Nationalist and prefer the PN to be in power. The distrust towards the Labour Party is still there, if not growing. One figure alone confirms all this. After 20 years in opposition, after such a smear campaign, after such an aggressive campaign in certain localities, Labour managed to decrease its votes by some 3,000 – and this is a source of great worry for the Labour camp.

I followed Gzira closely this time round. The Labour street leaders were going round door to door to make sure that all Labour supporters cast their vote. Even such aggressiveness, only matched at general elections, did not increase the Labour tally.

I put this down to the internal problems in the Labour leadership, in their vision of going back to the 70s’ policy, and the lack of a stance on any issue. They wait, sit on the fence, and issue papers and visions that get you nowhere very fast.

The latest episode is that of SmartCity. Labour say that they are in favour of job creation, investment and all that rhetoric. Then we come down to nitty-gritty, and the Labour camp votes negatively at the National Audit Office Accounts Committee, and then only says yes with reservations when the matter is discussed at plenary level.

Where does the Malta Labour Party stand? Would you entrust your vote to somebody who says yes and no, in the same breath, but ultimately blocks your expansion?

Well, the Nationalist Party, in contrast, is committed to growth, giving opportunities to all, and consistency. You know where you stand. With all its faults, this government has given peace of mind, which is so essential to a foreign investor; it has given a future, within a democracy, and a vision.

Few governments are capable of doing so. Our fault lies in the communication of such to grass-roots levels, to the people who do not care to search, to realise what progress has been made, but are today laid back, and need to be informed better and more often.

The laid-back attitude is a malaise of a good society where there is no need to demonstrate your worries as we did in the past, on so many issues that negatively hit Malta, ultimately resulting in a 22-month Labour government being cut short.

The Nationalist Party lost votes because traditional voters did not go out to vote. They did protest locally, and I have been to houses where Nationalist paid-up members voted Labour in council elections, AD in Europe, but will only vote PN in the general election, as only the PN assures and ensures a better lifestyle and future for their families.

However the PN machine has to be better oiled at a local level. While the upper government has appealed to the people, with its big projects, influx of funds, and concrete visions that will cater for the future of Malta, at a local level, by contrast, our lead is not as sound.

Working at a local level, as I did for some nine years, is no mean feat. Your human resources are limited, and you have to rely on voluntary services. The amount of time consumed is enormous, and it is always the same people who do what needs to be done.

Which gets me to some local issues in the 10th district, where construction companies and developers ride roughshod on residents living nearby. Noise, dust, hours of work, shouting, breaking are all things that developers do not care about.

Residents have their rights, and these should be safeguarded, no matter what. The excuse that everybody has to work holds no water. Everybody has a right to live peacefully and this right must be guaranteed.

The contractors find objection to putting in a banker’s guarantee or paying dues on pavement-taking, or breaking up roads and pavements. They should learn how to work diligently, rather than assuming the “anything-goes” motto, and respect the residents.

Robert Arrigo is a Nationalist MP