1. No average Labour voter wants an early election. They were against it when it happened in 2017 and will be against it now. For them, the early 2017 election meant one year fewer in power, and an election in 2020 would mean another two years fewer in power. That would mean that three of the potential 10 years in government would have been thrown away. Remember, the average Labour voter is thinking of the 25 years the Nationalist Party spent in power, and they want the PL to emulate, possibly surpass that feat. Those 25 years of PN were broken by a 22-month stint for Labour, but the Labour Party has drummed it up so much that the PN was in power for a quarter of a century – as if it prefers to forget those two tumultuous years it had in government – that the Labour voter “believes” it was one whole spell lasting 25 years.
2. Labour knows it will win the next election come what may. Whether it is held tomorrow, in three months or in two years, Labour is going to win. So there is really no rush for an election. An election two years from now will give Labour more time to prepare, for the new deputy leader for party affairs to settle down, and for Labour to continue to implement the five-year programme with which it won the 2017 election. It is said that Labour has fulfilled a majority of its electoral pledges, but it still needs to complete its programme. The more promises that are implemented, the more credible would Labour be in its pledges for the next term.
3. As things stand now, Abela is implementing a manifesto that is not his. He was part of it, endorsed it as a Labour candidate, but he is fulfilling someone else’s plan and, no doubt, would like to see it through as explained above. But he relishes the thought that he will be leading Labour into the next election with his own plan, which he then promises to carry out. An election manifesto is not something that is drawn up in a few days. It takes weeks, if not months, of preparation, meetings and discussions. With the Coronavirus pandemic, Abela has not had much time to think of anything else in his first six months as PM. And with Labour in the process of electing its new deputy leader – who will be dedicated exclusively to party affairs – this process has been sidelined for the time being. It will re-start once Labour will have the new deputy leader in place.
4. Robert Abela made many changes to his Cabinet of Ministers, when it is compared to the one that had been appointed by Joseph Muscat. Abela showed confidence in many of the younger MPs in his group, giving them important ministries in spite of their limited experience, considering that some of them were elected to Parliament for the first time in 2017. Others were given positions as parliamentary secretaries. A couple more years of experience in administration will serve them well for the time when Abela will make his choices once, as it is most likely, he will be re-elected to lead the country. Abela, who was also elected for the first time to Parliament in the last election, will use this time to settle down even more in his new role, learn from the mistakes he commits, and be able to gather more experience before he embarks on his first full term as PM.
5. Robert Abela would like to have an election on his own terms. He does not want to be pushed into an early election like his predecessor was. Joseph Muscat will be remembered for calling an election to escape the clutches of the Egrant inquiry, and all that came afterwards and all that we are getting to know these days. Robert Abela would like to complete the whole term and use the two years that remain as a launching pad for the next legislature. An early election, and especially one that could be forced by some scandal or revelation, would put him on an equal footing as Muscat, something that Abela would like to avoid.
Five reasons for election in 2020