The Easter holidays are the last period of quiet – if one can describe it in this way – before we embark upon a seven-week campaign that will take us to the European Parliament elections, to be held on 6 June.

It will be a busy time for the political parties involved. An EP election cannot in any way be compared to a national election, where the stakes are higher, but on the other hand it will give an indication as to what the people are thinking.

Five years ago, when the country voted to elect its first MEPs, the Labour Party had won three seats against the Nationalists’ two, and many believe that this scenario will be repeated this time round too. Such an election pushes many to vote for a candidate of a party they do not normally vote for in a general election, while others will simply not turn up to vote. This latter choice could be interpreted as a vote of no confidence, but for many it is simply a case of “why bother?”

Whether the people will be voting for five or six seats is still to be determined. Malta will have an extra place in the EP if the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty goes through later on this year, but an official decision on whether we will be voting for five or six MEPs in June is still to be taken.

What is sure is that this time we will be having a longer ballot sheet, as the two bigger parties will be fielding more candidates, and even the smaller ones have come up with their own list, rather than have just one.

While, with regard to the bigger parties, this will have little effect on the overall outcome, one wonders why Alternattiva Demokratika and Azzjoni Nazzjonali chose to have two and three candidates respectively. This could mean that their votes could be spread out more with the risk that their candidates will be eliminated sooner rather than later. Is this what they really want?

A recent survey showed that the impact of the small parties on the election will be minimal. If this turns out to be true, then the duopoly that exists in the current political sphere will be strengthened further – usually, people tend to “risk” voting for the smaller parties in EP and local council elections, and so if this were not to happen on 6 June, then the doubts about the future of small parties that arose after their bleak performance in the last general election will gain more ground.

Last time, AD’s Arnold Cassola was close to obtaining the fifth available seat, but the circumstances of the time were different than they are today.

What will be something to watch out for is the in-house competition i.e. the contest that there will be between candidates of the same political party. All current five MEPs will be vying for the same seat, and they have the advantage of already having served the country in the role. Whether they have performed well and whether they deserve another term is another story, although it is clear that one or two of them stand a better chance of being re-elected.

All of them, some more than others, have embarked on campaigns to attract as many voters as possible. Some of them were in fact seen at Good Friday processions, shaking hands and using the occasion to be seen in public.

But rather than compete against candidates of the other party, they will be competing for the votes of “their party” and the personal ones they will get from voters who usually prefer the other side of the political spectrum. And, just by looking at the names of the candidates, it will be a very interesting battle.