This writing will already be obsolete by the time it will be printed. For by that time the result of the general election will already begin to appear over the horizon, along with the sun on this hot last day of May and the result will dominate Maltese life over the coming months.

In other words this then is the end of the election campaign 2026, consigned to history. It has been, as I said the other day, short but not sweet.

Once again it has put our national life under that special lens called the election as we debated.

For those who are new to this country it has been a revelation of sorts, far beyond the novelty of the election ritual itself which now will follow as the election gets declared, the victor celebrated and the loser withdraws to lick its wounds and do whatever losers get to do.

Once again I am struck by the revelation how imprecise the election is when it comes to decide our future.

An elitist, I am repeatedly shocked to discover that my vote carries the same weight as that of those queuing to vote before or after me. But that's democracy, I am told, and it's the right reply to elitism.

There will now be the usual complaints by the losers about people who should not have voted but who apparently did vote - not just people in prison but also people suffering from incipient dementia etc.

By the time these arguments get the airing they deserve we would have already moved on, as the election is declared. 

There is a dark shadow lurking for we remain a Levantine society notwithstanding the Western veneer. There is violence just under the surface and this gets near boiling level at disfunctional family level (and which family can say it is completely violence-free?)

Then, for we're nothing if not party-goers, it's time to party and around me I can already discern the beginning of the preparations as the toes begin to itch.

Meanwhile the festa season is already here and we immediately slip over to that other very Maltese mode of being.

After the celebrations it will be time to climb down from all the heights of excitement and the decibels. 

It will be time for the victor to remember those who put him there and what commitments he has given and to start implementing them from now rather than postponing them. 

We will find out the world is still there and the wars are still there, though perhaps nearing resolution in Crimea. The other hotspots are unfortunately all there with their capacity for mischief undimmed while our attention was centred on this island-universe.

History note

The cultural roots of Malta's identity 

Christian myths and social identity in a Mediterranean frontier society 

Author: Carmel Cassar. / 32 pages / 2005

Christianity was deeply rooted among the Maltese well before the advent of the Order of St John in 1530.

By the late Middle Ages Malta had developed into a diocese run by an absentee bishop and an Inquisition tribunal that was usually presided over by the Vicar-General who was generally responsible for the island's spiritual needs.

Despite the advent of the elitist, aristocratic and powerful Order of Knights, the Diocese of Malta continued to play a dominant part in Malta and acted largely as a separate if not an independent entity - a role which the Catholic Church could play largely thanks to the strong attachment of the Maltese community towards religion.

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