By the time you read this contribution, you would have been inundated with facts and analysis relating to last Saturday’s European Parliament and local council elections. Emphasis is made on the percentage of voter turnout and how it compares to that registered five years ago. How does that percentage then help us gauge party percentages, what does it mean at the level of national politics, who are the five MEPs representing all of Malta at the European Parliament, who is the next in line to be admitted as immediate observer at the institution... and so on and so forth.

No attempt at further analysis is made by me at this stage, not only because you have had more than your fair share of analysis already, but also and more practically because this article is being written on the night before actual polling to reach the editor in time for publication on Monday.

The feature is being written after my attending this year’s ‘Sette Giugno’ commemoration – held this time round two days before the actual date precisely because of the European Parliament elections and the counting process that took place yesterday.

A couple of points made by Louis Galea, the Speaker of the House, at this year’s commemoration cannot be missed. After referring to the spectre of absenteeism in an electoral process or of detaching oneself from the political system and the dangerous void that such antics can lead to, he made a very important commitment.

He said that once Saturday’s elections are over, he will be intensifying the dialogue and discussion that has commenced in the Select Committee of the House of Representatives, in order to achieve tangible progress with regard to the themes that had unanimously been entrusted to that committee by Parliament itself.

Dr Galea added that in the light of reforms that Parliament is considering at this stage with regard to local councils, it is not expected that the people will be called upon to cast any vote for the next two years.

One of the immediate effects of the reform that the government is promulgating to ensure more efficient and effective local councils is to change their term of office from three to four years and in the process ensure that these elections are no longer held in a third of the country every year, but are held in half of the country every other year.

People could well do with a respite from the annual campaigning that has inevitably gained momentum each year since local councils were rightly set up as part of the way the country is governed. Irrespective of the results achieved on a political level, the country cannot afford to go into campaign mode every year. Switching to a biannual encounter with part of the electorate is a step in the right direction and has been welcomed as such by one and all.

This is the time when we should be looking at moving ahead on a national basis. The two year breathing space until another electoral campaign sets in is the right time to achieve results through the Select Committee set up by Parliament to consider such issues as how to ensure Parliament functioning more effectively, how national broadcasting can make the quality leaps that are desired and examining in the process the role of private, not least political party stations, as well as making other improvements in our general constitutional framework to strengthen democracy in our country.

It is a time for the political parties to examine more profoundly their own identity and vision for the country.

Ultimately apart from emphasising our different points of view which is healthy in any democracy, it is important for each and every one of us to examine what we can manage to achieve together for the common good.

There is no stronger motivation in politics than in using it as a tool to achieve whatever one may even from opposing but hopefully converging perspectives consider to be for the benefit of our country.

If the Speaker of the House finds the needed backing and collaboration, we can and shall achieve the challenges that he set out before representatives of both sides of the House at the commemoration held last Friday. Moving ahead in this manner becomes an exciting prospect to look forward to.

Francis Zammit Dimech is a Nationalist MP