For the umpteenth time, Robert Abela has chosen not to take questions from The Malta Independent.

This week, the man who aspires to become Prime Minister via an election to the Labour Party leadership failed to give answers to a set of questions that were sent to him in the run-up to the election.

The other candidate for the post, Chris Fearne, was sent a similar set of questions, to which he replied.

Abela, again, chose not to. He was given a Friday deadline to answer the questions and he did not.

We use “again” because Abela has constantly turned down requests for an interview with The Malta Independent. He was asked to appear on TMI’s programme Indepth, a request he never accepted in spite of repeated reminders. And he has now failed to answer written questions via email.

Fearne had been a guest of Indepth late last year, soon after he announced his intention to run for the PL leadership.

On Friday, Abela made some worrying statements regarding his relationship with the media.

While taking part on Xarabank, he said he is being “very careful in his engagement with the independent media.” He said he is keeping at a distance intentionally so that he will then be free to take decisions that need to be taken.

He did not elaborate, but his words appear ominous.