The Malta Labour Party must have been disappointed with the Prime Minister’s words in the closing debate of the Budget 2008 parliamentary debate.

The party was expecting Dr Lawrence Gonzi to announce the dissolving of Parliament and the date of the election, some time in December. But what the Prime Minister said was that there is still a long way to go until the election. It will now be held some time next year, probably in late February or early March.

The MLP’s disappointment emerged clearly at the first opportunity. Addressing party activists in Floriana last Sunday, Labour leader Alfred Sant criticised the government for creating what he described as unnecessary confusion and uncertainty about the election date.

Well, it was not the government that was spreading the rumours about an impending election. If anything, the government was being forced to quash these rumours, and it happened quite often that the Prime Minister had to reply, point blank, to questions about the date.

No government in its right state of mind has any interest in fomenting speculation on the election date. We all know that each time an election is close, the impact on economic activity is negative, and this puts the government in a bad light. The government has every reason to keep the country running as smoothly as possible, and therefore does its best not to create bumps.

This, even more so considering that we are approaching the busiest time for business, the Christmas season, when shops will be brimming with people buying presents and restaurants, bars and places of entertainment will also be full of people enjoying themselves.

The rumours that were being spread about a possible early election were not coming from the Nationalist Party quarters, but from Labour Party ones. It is not the first time that Labour exponents spoke about an imminent election, so much so that the Prime Minister himself said that the MLP has been in election mode since 2003. Media people who lean towards the MLP have also expressed themselves, more than once, in this direction.

It could be that they were doing this because they were seeing the advantage that the MLP had gained over the PN over the past years being whittled away, and wanted the election to be held before this turns into a disadvantage. Let’s face it, the PN did score many points with the measures announced in the budget, and once the people start reaping the fruit in January, the feel-good factor is bound to increase.

The only drawback there could be for the PN in prolonging its stay in government is the switchover from the lira to the euro, a move that could lead to real or perceived inflation that could favour the MLP.

And this is why it is probable that the election will now be held in February or March, a time when it would still be early to gauge the impact of the euro. And this is also why the MLP is bound to concentrate most of its efforts on the cost of living in a bid to persuade the people to vote for it.

The MLP strategy is clear on this. Prices will explode after March, Dr Sant told his supporters last Sunday. This is tantamount to saying that the MLP expects the election to be held before the end of that month, and that it believes the government will try to take advantage of the fact that prices on hundreds of products have been frozen until March.

It is to be expected that we will be hearing Dr Sant saying this over and over again, particularly when the election date is announced. This will be one of the major cards the MLP will be playing when the time comes.