The first week of the election campaign is gone. Another eight remain.

The Labour Party still holds a steady advantage over the Nationalist Party, according to surveys published in newspapers yesterday. Their lead is bigger than the one they had five years ago at the start of the election campaign.

That time, the campaign was five weeks long. This time, it is nine weeks. It remains to be seen whether the PN will manage to recover the lost ground as it had done in 2008.

Joseph Muscat still says that the PL is the underdog. Considering that the PL has been ahead ever since it lost the 2008 election by a whisker – managing to win all local and MEP elections that have been held since – this statement smacks of a ploy to keep his troops in line. It is a way of telling everyone to be careful. A mistake now could prove costly.

For its part, the PN has had to defend all the way since the Labour Party came up with its energy proposals. Perhaps the PN did not think that the PL could come up with such a plan, and the Nationalists have tried to discredit what the PL is saying. But the PL has managed to create a strong favourable perception in its favour; and very often it is perceptions that work, not the real thing.

There is still a long way to go between now and 9 March, the day the country will be asked to vote. Both parties are still to present their electoral programme, their full plans for what they intend to do in the next five years should they be granted the right to govern.

We will be hearing much more from them in the coming weeks. What we hope for is that the debate will not focus solely on the energy bills. They are important, but they should not be the sole issue in hand. People should not base their decision on just the energy sector, but on the overall picture. And, on this, we still need to learn so much from either end.

Slowly, both parties are coming up with other proposals. We heard the PN put forward what it intends to do in Gozo in the next five years, while the Labour Party spoke about its intentions on civil rights. But we will only be able to make a complete judgment when both sides present their electoral plan. Both have so far refrained from saying when they will do it, trying to keep the other side guessing.

But the people have a right to know – the earlier, the better.