Just 20 days before the general election, the Office of the Commissioner of Police issued a letter minute by virtue of which it ordered the transfer of 149 policemen from one section to the other in the police corps around Malta and Gozo. They stank so much of partisanship that it took me just a couple of minutes to pen a press statement to condemn this overt act of political opportunism.

Thank God the bulk of the independent media carried the story, except for The Times which, since a couple of months, has been gatekeeping Labour party official press statements by shadow ministers, a tactic introduced to the local “free” press during the EU referendum campaign five years ago. The Times is very good at pretending to be objective at the beginning of the legislature but becomes miserably biased and prejudiced towards the end.

Well at any rate, there you have it. The police corps have become a tool of political expediency. During the last four years I, as shadow minister for the police, have been inundated with complaints by policemen who have had their numerous requests for a transfer within the corps outrightly rejected. Most of them were based on sound reasons. Indeed I have knowledge of a fistful as there were very justified reasons for such requests, including health reasons.

Now, all of a sudden, right on the eve of the general election, a sizeable number of police officers have had their request accepted – but they are not the ones who had previously filed their requests. They are fresh requests filed in by Nationalist diehards who have been threatening the Nationalist government with electoral retortion. Others have been meticulously selected from the original list depending on whether they flashed blue or red.

Pressure has been mounting upon Dr Tonio Borg to appease the party faithful at the expense of other hard working police officers. To accommodate them others have had to relinquish their posts in order to make space for Nationalist blue-eyed babies. The purge was so widespread that it was not limited to the inferior ranks – some police inspectors and superintendents too had to carry the can.

This is the new way of doing politics. I was led to believe that the police corps was being run in a very disciplined and independent manner. However it only takes an election to find out that even the most disciplined head of department, or rather perceived to be so, quivers in the face of political pressure. Indeed I find inconsistency a very disappointing characteristic in people. How unfortunate and regrettable! This inconsistency continues to plunge the police corps in further demoralisation as policemen now know, beyond reasonable doubt, that not everyone is treated fairly and justly. Politics come first, even before health or other justified reasons.

I have been approached by a Nationalist-leaning policeman who confided with me that he would not be voting for his party this time round. He cited various reasons which to me sound justified. But he also told me that Nationalist Party MPs on his district have been harassing him to change his mind and offered him last minute “favours” which he bluntly refused. “They really think I’m a fool,” he quipped. “I’ve been waiting for four long years to have my request entertained. Now they have the effrontery to offer it to me on the eleventh hour!” Well, I thought, this is most probably what is going on at this very moment in the police corps.

Indeed I was right. Soon after the 149 transfers were ordered last Monday, new transfers are being ordered, while I pen this piece, by stealth and in smaller doses. Of course the Gonzi administration is now being held to ransom by disappointed Nationalist-leaning policemen who are now on rampage to elicit favours before it is too late. “Why not me too? Do you want my vote, or shall I stay at home on election day?

The Home Affairs Ministry and the Office of the Commissioner of Police must be working overtime.

Dr Gavin Gulia is opposition spokesman for Home Affairs