Up to 4,000 Labourites 'voted for PN' last year

Between 3,000 and 4,000 Labour Party sympathisers who voted yes in the 2003 EU referendum subsequently voted for the Nationalist Party in the general election, according to an analysis by PN secretary general Joe Saliba.

Mr Saliba's analysis of Malta's 2003 elections has been featured in a European yearbook of political campaigning.

He writes that following the yes vote in the EU referendum, a result which the Labour Party failed to acknowledge, all the PN needed to do was appeal to the electorate to make use of their vote in the general election to reconfirm the yes vote.

According to Mr Saliba, this strategy helped the PN win votes from MLP supporters since they had no other means of defending their yes vote.

The yearbook, Election Time 03 - The European Yearbook of Political Campaigning 2003, comprises an analysis of 18 European elections, ranging from EU membership referendums to presidential elections.

Seventeen writers delved into the strategies, surveys and measures used during political campaigns to convey a message to the electorate. It is published by the Vienna-based European Association of Political Consultants, which aims to bring together political strategists and campaign managers to share their experiences.

The book also includes specific chapters on Malta, featuring survey statistics and publicity material used by the PN in its electoral campaigns last year.

Mr Saliba drew up an analysis of the EU referendum and general election in 2003, outlining in the process the tight election races in Malta over the years.

"A simple oversight in strategy or even a minor political miscalculation is enough for a party, however popular, to lose an election," Mr Saliba writes.

He highlights the strategy chosen by his party to ensure that the issue of EU membership was treated as a national one, shying away from partisan politics. This, he said, was evidenced by the conspicuous absence of party flags during PN meetings.