Elections, like football matches or even operas, come in two parts – first comes the anticipation, the preparation, the build-up when all is shining, dreams are a-plenty and everyone believes he or she will win.

Then comes the second part which may be called pay-back time, when the winner touches glory and the losers are punished.

It’s an ugly scene which is made uglier when it happens three times in a row. In 1976 it sparked off an orgy of violence against Nationalist Party clubs only then for a doddering Archbishop Gonzi to say the miscreants should be pardoned because they were just teenage hotheads.

This time there was no physical violence. Instead a huge carcade created an almighty din until sunset and people danced and sang till they became hoarse. Their party had won and so was right in everything it said and proposed to do.

Instead the airwaves were full of recrimination. On Sunday One TV seemed dominated by Labour pundits saying PN should do this and not that – as if it matters.

It was only when people calmed down and could look at the real figures that they could see the Labour victory in its real dimensions.

Labour has won – but this time it was supported by just 45% of the electorate while the remaining 55% either voted PN, the other parties or did not vote at all. In other words, 163,000 voted Labour but 192,000 did not. Labour got 163,000 votes compared to 171,000 in 2017, a drop of some 8,000 votes. If it’s any consolation, the PN vote decreased by 12,000 votes to 123,000 compared to 2017.

A full 60,000, double that of 2017, do not believe in either of the two parties. That’s pay-back time for you.

But there’s more pay-back coming. Some Labour apologists soon came up with a hit-list of voices they wanted to shut up – Manwel Delia, Repubblika, etc – while on the Nationalist side bile and acrimony was heaped on the Blue Heroes who had brought Adrian Delia down and who were blamed for the PN defeat.

But there are more levels to pay-back. One of the characteristics of the Maltese political system is the complicated system of proportional representation which makes candidates from the same party battle it out between themselves. This engenders harsh underwater battles as bad as water polo undersea grappling.

Candidates drop out or are relegated to the margins while new candidates make new alliances and subvert established rankings. With Malta not having a Senate, the old established member soon becomes a has-been, riding like John Wayne into the sunset.

Nevertheless, as we shall see when the process is complete with the casual elections and the new gender mechanism is activated, there has been a generational shift in the House. There will be a new breed of Members.

This has been accentuated by what one might even call Robert Abela’s special pay-back – his relegation of no less than six, including ministers, to the backbenches including some who had brought the government to disrepute.

At the same time the country is still waiting for Bernard Grech’s version of pay-back even though the leader himself will now face criticism. I have many times pointed out his lackluster delivery of speeches and I also believe his focusing in the last days of the campaign on Abela’s villa or ranch on the outskirts of Zejtun was a mistake because it reinforced the perception of his party as a vindictive one.

And so our beleaguered nation lurches ahead, when other countries choose a smoother way than ours and when our system, such as it is, rewards the troublemakers and the fomenters of hatred.

If the prime minister really means what he has been saying about reconciliation and dialogue how come our national theatre is producing a scurrilous and vile play about the journalist who got blown up for her investigation about corruption? That’s an unacceptable form of pay-back.

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