The election of Joseph Muscat as the new Malta Labour Party last Friday is the new beginning the MLP was looking for after 16 years of Alfred Sant rule that brought about more disappointments than satisfactions. Or is it?

Only time will tell whether Dr Muscat is a replica of his predecessor, as most of his detractors pointed out in the run-up leading to the election, or whether he will bring about the change that is needed within a party to make it the alternative government that the country needs.

There are some who believe that Dr Muscat is still too young and politically immature to lead such a vast organisation as the MLP is. These say that his inexperience in both the House of Representatives and in the internal structures of the party will engulf him in great difficulties. The last time Labour elected as its leader a non-MP with no familiarity within the party – Dr Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici – the party went through one of the worst times in its history.

But then, two-thirds of the delegates believe that Dr Muscat is the right choice for the same reasons – they believe that he has no link with Labour’s recent defeats and that his enthusiasm will bring about a new breath of fresh air that the party

wishes for after such a lean period of time in local politics. That he will be entering the party administration after not having worked there and the House of Representatives without ever being a Member of Parliament is seen as an asset for a party that wants to regenerate itself.

The way the vote turned out last week had been predicted in the surveys that were held in the preceding weeks. The people had said, more than once, that Dr Muscat would have won the race although Dr George Abela was the better candidate to lead the MLP to an election victory.

Again, time will tell whether the delegates made the right choice. What is sure is that they preferred him to Dr Abela. They probably found it hard to forgive Dr Abela for his departure before the fateful 1998 election. It seems not all prodigal sons, as Dr Abela liked to call himself, are welcomed back.

Yet, Dr Muscat made it clear that everyone, including Dr Abela, has a place in the “new political season” he called for soon after the official results were made known last Friday. The other three contestants, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, Evarist Bartolo and Michael Falzon, also have a place within the party, he said.

Dr Muscat has promised an “earthquake of change”. But he must go about doing it with great caution. There are other things that need to be settled before he really takes over the reins of the party.

For one thing, he must wait for the election of his two deputies later on this week. The new deputy for party affairs and the new deputy for parliamentary affairs, together with Dr Muscat, will form the trio of leaders that will take the MLP towards the next election and, here again, the delegates have an important decision to make.

Secondly, Dr Muscat will have to sacrifice his position as a Member of the European Parliament, a position he said he will relinquish at the end of summer. Thirdly, a local MP must resign from the House to make way for Dr Muscat, and this will certainly be one of the first important decisions that Dr Muscat will have to make. In the meantime, the party will have to live with the anomaly of having a party leader who is not the Opposition Leader.

Dr Muscat becomes the MLP leader at a time when the party is still to pick itself up from its latest defeat at the polls. It is now up to him to put it back on its feet.