The electoral campaign was long in the offing, and long being mentioned. Dates were bandied around for months on end, as many sought to speculate and put their finger on when Malta will be going to the polls.

Many expected a hectic and intense electoral campaign, with parties fighting for every vote on offer and with barbs being traded left, right, and centre.

And yet, now that the electoral actually arrived – it’s been quite muted.

What is certain is that the electoral campaign as a whole has been overshadowed; something you wouldn’t necessarily expect to happen in a country which is as politically obsessed as Malta is.

However, Russia’s despicable invasion of Ukraine and the war it has waged there over the past week or so has overtaken the public’s minds, the general discourse, and even the campaign itself.

The biggest electoral issue over the past week has in fact not been over proposals which a party has or hasn’t made – but over an aspect of this war: Malta’s passport selling scheme and the pressure on the government to suspend it, at least to Russian nationals.

It took a whole week of local and international pressure for the government to eventually turn its back on its defence of the controversial programme.  The PN – which, mind you, has included a revamped passport selling scheme in its own manifesto – used the issue to suggest that Robert Abela is putting national security at risk.

Regardless though, after quite a frantic first week, electoral matters seemed to have slowed down somewhat. 

This has been more the case for the PL than the PN, which has consistently hosted a press conference (or two) along with party activities across the country in the evening with party leader Bernard Grech being a key figure at most of these activities.

The PL however, have slowed down with the amount of press conferences that they’ve been holding, seemingly choosing to follow a campaign which is based more around grassroots activities – a number of candidates have held their own launch activities as individuals to introduce themselves to their constituency which have gone unmentioned by the party. The PN has opted for ‘meet the candidate’ style of events for each district.

The Prime Minister himself in fact, while featuring in some of the party’s evening activities, has not addressed a press conference since he outlined some of the party’s new proposals on Monday.

It’s another strategic divergence between the two parties, much like the divergence there has been in the timing of each party’s manifesto: the PN’s was published in the first week of the campaign, while the PL’s is – as of yet – unpublished. 

However it’s clear that, at least for now, this is an electoral campaign which is fairly muted when compared to previous elections. Perhaps people are tired of campaigning which, in truth, has been ongoing since last October as people geared up for a potentially earlier election.

Still, it is early days, things will likely heat up at some point or another – especially as 26 March draws nearer.