The resignation of Alfred Sant from the post of Malta Labour Party leader brings to an end a 16-year-period of strife and tribulations for a party that has not managed to renew itself enough to win the people’s confidence for the third election in a row.

The best years for Alfred Sant were the first four, during which he managed to clean the party of unwanted elements and gave a breath of fresh air to a party that had succumbed to two consecutive heavy defeats.

His promise to remove Value Added Tax was the weapon with which he managed to win the election in 1996, certainly the most triumphant moment in his political life. But that turned out to be the only important victory Dr Sant managed during his leadership.

From then onwards, it was one downfall after another for Dr Sant. He failed to hold on to power as his government collapsed after 22 months following internal difficulties. He then embarked on a crusade against European Union membership, going for a partnership option which was refused by the people in 2003, first in a referendum and later in a general election.

Dr Sant offered to resign after the 2003 electoral defeat, but he changed his mind, re-contested the leadership and retained the post for another five years. Successive victories in local council elections and the poll to elect Malta’s representatives in the European Parliament gave him hope of a national win, but once again the MLP failed in its bid to oust the Nationalist Party from government.

Political party leaders normally move away from the scene after one, perhaps two defeats. But it has taken four national defeats for Alfred Sant to decide to call it a day.

It has not been an easy time for Dr Sant. He is bravely fighting an illness that hit him on the eve of an election campaign, and yet in spite of the repercussions he fought on and campaigned extensively for his party over the past five weeks, taking the party’s message to all corners of Malta and Gozo.

However, the MLP did not manage to convince the people that it was a better alternative to a government that has been in office for a decade – nearly two, except for that brief Labour stint between 1996 and 1998.

It failed to come up with the right proposals for Malta’s future and, perhaps realising that the Nationalist Party was offering a better deal, preferred to focus its campaign on trying to put the government and individual ministers in bad light.

Its mudslinging campaign and the allegations of

corruption that were levelled at certain ministers – which led to a number of libel cases being presented in court – did not work as well as Labour expected, and the few proposals made, such as the introduction of a reception class for children in between kindergarten and primary school, were shot down.

In the end the MLP lost the election to a party that had the better ideas and that had taken the country forward in the last four years of European Union membership.

Labour must now turn the corner. It must first of all elect a new leader to replace Dr Sant, and the race is already on. The new MLP leader must be one who should work to really give the party a new beginning.

It is a hard time for the MLP. At the end of this legislature they will have been in opposition for a quarter of a century. The party must use the coming five years to rebuild itself from scratch, doing away with outdated practices and policies that have led to one defeat after another.

It must elect a leader that brings in a new way of reaching out to the people, a leader who is more forward-looking and more positive.

The country needs a strong opposition, one that, yes, criticises the government’s operations, but one that also offers other solutions.