It is unusual for a party that is contesting an election to be silent in the weeks leading up to it, but this is what the Nationalist Party has chosen to do, at least until yesterday, as half the country prepares to vote to elect 35 local councils on 10 March. At the other end of the political scale, the Labour Party is on an intensive campaign with leader Joseph Muscat to be found in Labour-led localities on a daily basis. Analysis by Stephen Calleja

Three weeks before local council elections are held after a three-year lull following the 2009 reform, the Labour Party is in full swing with its campaign to promote its candidates as the better choice, while the Nationalist Party has been almost completely absent from the run-up.

And although the Nationalist Party launched its local council electoral manifesto yesterday, the Labour Party has had a significant head start.

The PL has always taken the initiative each time local council elections have been held – even when it did not officially compete in them but put forward “independent” candidates – while the PN, although it was the party that introduced the concept of local councils in 1992, never attached too much importance to the results obtained.

For one thing, the Labour Party has won more local council elections than the PN, but it has been in Opposition for the past 13 years. Between 2004 and 2007, the PL beat the PN in all local elections, but then ended up losing the March 2008 general election.

This time around, the Labour Party even protested when the writ for local elections was delayed by a couple of days, and actually embarked on their campaign before the writ had, in fact, been issued.

The PL has a majority in most of the localities it visited in the first two weeks of campaigning, and it is clear that it will win again there.

Labour leader Joseph Muscat, accompanied by the PL spokesman on local councils Stefan Buontempo, has visited places like Marsa, Luqa, Birzebbuga, Kirkop, Vittoriosa, Paola, Santa Lucija and Gzira, which are predominantly Labour. At least he has spared us the percentage points that used to be awarded by former leader Alfred Sant in previous campaigns.

In more recent days, it has also held one event in a Nationalist-led locality, Siggiewi, but this was quite a singular effort, and Labour’s concentration remains on localities where it has a strong base.

The PL is also organising evening activities where the PL leader has been interviewed solely on local councils, has presented its candidates in a full-blown press conference a week ago yesterday and on Wednesday called up the media to put forward its local council election manifesto, a long drawn-out affair that was more of an attempt to say hey there, “Labour has plans” at least in local councils.

The presentation came in the wake of accusations that it has yet to come up with its proposals on a national level. At least, the public now knows what Labour stands for with regard to local councils, while it awaits developments in a national scenario.

The Nationalist media has taken these opportunities to pour scorn on the PL, saying that many of the projects Dr Muscat boasted about were carried out in cooperation with the central government, which also paid part of the funds. It said that Labour was riding on the central government’s success by camouflaging the projects it highlighted as having been the sole work of local councils with a Labour majority.

Until last Friday, the Labour Party had steered clear of visiting Mosta, where it also enjoys a majority, but where the council has been in the news for the wrong reasons over the past few years, including the time when mayor Paul Chetcuti Caruana ordered staff to tear off an article written for the council’s official magazine by fellow Labour councillor Josette Agius Decelis before the magazine was distributed to Mosta residents.

Dr Chetcuti Caruana was not present for Friday’s activity – he will not contest this time – and he did not even get a mention in the Labour Party press statement, a clear signal that the party wants a clean slate in Mosta and wants to distance itself from what has taken place.

Of course, this was picked up in the PN media, which only last week was at it again when it carried a story about a direct order that was given by the Mosta local council to a Labour candidate.

While Dr Muscat has been quite timid with regard to the goings-on in Mosta, he has been more forthcoming on Sliema, a traditionally Nationalist stronghold, which will have its local election a year ahead of schedule after the council was dissolved last month following a string of events involving the former mayor and various councillors.

At the other end of the political scale, the Nationalist Party has been exceptionally quiet. Its activities regarding local elections were always fewer compared to Labour’s, but this time around they have been almost completely absent.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi fleetingly mentioned the elections in his public activities and last Friday the minister responsible for local councils, Carm Mifsud Bonnici, visited St Paul’s Bay to highlight the work carried out by the Nationalist-led local council there. This is as far as the Nationalist campaign has gone.

The PN is also holding its Sunday morning discussions in localities where residents will be asked to vote, but the focal point is not the local elections. For example, the event in St Paul’s Bay last Sunday was about education.

It is apparent that the PN is not paying too much attention to the 10 March elections. It is perhaps concentrating on the internal issues that it has had to deal with ever since Nationalist MP Franco Debono said he no longer supported Dr Gonzi after he was left out of a Cabinet reshuffle on 6 January.

It is perhaps focusing on next Saturday’s vote in an extraordinary general council meeting after Dr Gonzi put his leadership status on the line. He will not be contested, but the outcome of Saturday’s vote will determine the way forward for the PM, and also for the PN.

The PN is perhaps also seeing beyond the local elections, and does not want to lose energy now when a national election could be only weeks away.

In the so far only public confrontation between the PN and PL on local councils (L-Istampa Kollha on PBS radio last Sunday), Labour was represented by its spokesman on local councils, Dr Buontempo, while the PN had the former parliamentary secretary responsible for local councils, Chris Said, on the panel, rather than Home Affairs and Local Government Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici.

Dr Said is no longer responsible for local councils (he was given the justice portfolio in exchange for local councils in the Cabinet reshuffle), and in fact Dr Buontempo made a point of asking during the debate why it was not Dr Mifsud Bonnici who was taking part.

People close to Dr Mifsud Bonnici are known to have complained to the party about this. Their argument is that the programme producers got it wrong when they invited Dr Said, but Dr Said should not have agreed to take part in a debate on a subject that is no longer his and he should have referred them to Dr Mifsud Bonnici.

But the crux of the matter – one that can have many interpretations – is why the PN has chosen to remain so quiet in the build-up to the local elections. Until yesterday, it had not presented its candidates officially, and some who have spoken in private about this say that they have been somewhat left on their own in their efforts so far.

They say that theirs has been an individual effort, while the Labour candidates are backed by the entire party structure and have been given the opportunity to say what they stand for, what they have achieved (if they have already functioned as councillors) and what they plan to do in the event that they are elected.

Three weeks separate us from the local elections. In between, Dr Gonzi is seeking confirmation as PN leader and, after that, things may change.