Candidates for the forthcoming General Election yesterday began submitting their nominations for a seat in the House of Parliament at Evens Building.

As has become the norm – the first reaction on the social networks was one of apathy and black humour – with candidates being tagged in a photograph of horses bursting out of the blocks. This campaign is going to be a long one. There’s about five weeks left, and we have already seen our fair share of bickering, proposals and counter proposals. In a sense, we have been in campaign mode for the last 18 months and it has never stopped, so people are bound to already be a little bit sick and fed up of what is going on. But just like in every campaign, it only really gets going once people submit their nominations in writing.

Now, we will see an escalation in house visit and individual initiatives to boost popularity within voting districts as the ‘side’ campaign kicks off. Of course, the emphasis will be on the parties, and who is fielding who and where as candidates. Once that phase wears off, we will see the competition for places within the parties themselves hot up.

Soon we will see candidates vying with each other for each and every vote. Others will be trying to contest for the umpteenth time, only to be discarded. Others will be submitting their nomination to test the waters for the following election – sometime in 2018 (provided the legislature goes full term).  Others are tried and trusted members of parliament, and will be sure to win another seat.

But by Wednesday, we will have the final list of who has decided to throw their hat into the ring – and perhaps the biggest name to look out for is that of Franco Debono, who has still not yet announced whether or not he plans to set up a new political party and contest the elections.

Once the nominations are in and closed, it will go back to party politics as the AD, PL, PN and the fringe parties go back to telling us just how amazing they intend to make Malta and how we are all going to receive manna from Heaven. But at least, these next couple of days will offer a welcome distraction from the normal campaign days.

There have been no major surprises as yet, but given the twists and turns we all experienced throughout this legislature, we would not want to take anything for granted. A day in politics is a long time, and there are a lot of days left to burn through until we go to the polls.