PN kicks off electoral campaign

Prime minister Lawrence Gonzi was forced to defend his party's decision to withdraw four candidates from the March 12 local council elections at the eleventh hour, as the Nationalist Party kicked off its month-long electoral campaign yesterday.

In the presence of 111 PN candidates Dr Gonzi told a press conference at party headquarters that the party was prepared to pay the price to take decisions in the interest of the country.

The PN's campaign motto reflects the government's priorities outlined in the last budget - "Work. Education. Environment".

But rather than asking him to elaborate his party's policies, reporters wanted to know from Dr Gonzi why his party decided to withdraw the nominations of four candidates in the Labour strongholds of Marsa and Zejtun, minutes before the deadline for the election nominations. As a result the number of candidates equals the number of councillors to be elected and so no elections will be held in the two localities.

Dr Gonzi repeated time and again that the PN had merely responded to the "circumstances" and adopted a strategy used by the Labour Party in the past in Gozitan localities and Safi.

"I cannot understand why the Labour Party is criticising us when it did the same thing in the past," he said, as he denied that the candidates' names were withdrawn without their consent.

On the same note, one should also ask why the MLP initially had 119 candidates, but the final list consisted of only 116 persons, he said.

Replying to a suggestion that the Nationalists in Zejtun were upset at the party's decision, Dr Gonzi said it was the Zejtun residents more than anybody else who were fully aware that it was a PN government which had introduced democracy to the country.

These were the same people that were beaten up and had their doors burnt down by Labour supporters back in the 1980s.

Still, the PN's decision to opt out of the Marsa and Zejtun elections should in no way mean that the government would let up its determination to improve the south of the island, he said.

What the public should note was the way the Labour mayors in the south were fuelled by their partisan agendas and were objecting to the recycling plant in Marsascala, he said.

At this point, Dr Gonzi challenged Opposition Lleader Alfred Sant to declare whether he intended to build recycling plants in Kirkop, Mellieha, Mqabba and Dingli, rather than choose to sit on the fence and criticise.

He branded Dr Sant's strategy of giving percentages to the supposed works carried out by Labour-led councils as nothing more than a gimmick.

Dr Gonzi laughed off suggestions that his government had cut the funds of local councils in real terms, saying their revenue was actually doubled compared to what they had received from the former Labour administration.

The Prime Minister would not comment about his party's chances for the March 12 elections, saying that local elections simply could not be interpreted on a national level.

Still, Dr Gonzi said that his party would study every electoral result, the way it did after the European Parliament election last June.

Asked what had changed in the Nationalist administration since June, Dr Gonzi said his party was now making it a point to explain more the reasons behind each of its decisions. His government also started a national social dialogue to hammer out a Social Pact.

Dr Gonzi urged PN councillors to avoid being pigeonholed into an administrative role, and instead do their utmost to try and boost work in their locality.

Local councils had a duty to eliminate bureaucracy, urge their youths to participate in programmes, eliminate illiteracy, and care for their environment.

Dr Gonzi expressed his hope that agreement would be reached to extend the three-year term of local councils, which would help to ensure they had enough time to carry out their plans.

However, he urged the Labour Party to stop adopting a Monti mentality in Parliament by calling for changes in the electoral districts in return for agreeing with the government on other matters.