The Nationalist Party's performance in the local elections do not reflect the party's polls on a national level, according to PN general secretary Joe Saliba.

The electorate is mature enough to realise the difference between a national and a local election, Mr Saliba told The Times, a day after the PN was trounced in local polls.

The Labour Party is in festive mood after winning 53.2 per cent of the vote in Saturday's elections in 22 localities - the fourth successive victory for the opposition. The MLP has beaten the PN by nearly 10 percentage points in the last three local elections.

So is this consistent trend merely a preamble to a Labour victory in the impending national election? Not at all, according to Mr Saliba.

He said yesterday: "I believe in scientific surveys and not in emotions and on a national level we've always derived the results we wanted. And on a national level it shows that the Nationalist Party will win the upcoming election. There is still some work to do, but on the whole people are content".

Even if one had to interpret in detail the recent Xarabank survey, it is clear the PN is in the lead, he said.

"A third of the electorate doesn't vote in the local elections so we can't link the two elections or else we'd be distorting matters. But we also can't underestimate the message sent by those who abstained from voting."

Mr Saliba admitted that he was not surprised by the weekend's result, saying it roughly reflected the party's own forecasts.

In reality, however, the PN's losses were not the MLP's gains, he said. The PN had seen its share of votes go down by 6,000 compared to 2004, but the MLP's tally was also slashed by 3,000 votes.

"We have to take into consideration the fact that we've been in government for 20 years and the Labourites are naturally more eager to vote than the Nationalists.

"We were tempted to carry out an aggressive campaign leading to the local council elections but we were criticised for this in the past. The general strategy for the national election will be different and one of the main rules is to get people out to vote."

The electorate has repeatedly proven its intelligence and realise the impact of every election, he said.

For example, in 2003, the majority voted in favour of EU membership, a campaign steered mainly by the Nationalists, and, yet, the PN failed to garner an absolute majority in the local elections held on the same day.

Mr Saliba said the PN will win the upcoming general election because of the government's clear policies, in stark contrast to the dearth of ideas from the Labour camp.

Labour deputy leader Michael Falzon was cautiously triumphant, and said his party fully deserved to win the general election.

The last four years have seen a national move towards the MLP, he said, including the victorious European Parliament elections, contested on a national level.

Underlining the fact that the country's mood was clearly in favour of the MLP, Dr Falzon said it would be difficult for anything to halt such a trend. He was, however, quick to cite the phrase coined by former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson: "We all know that a week is a long time in politics".

"We need to be humble with the people," he added, pointing out that he was fully aware that local councils were the easiest way for voters to vent their frustration.

Dr Falzon would not comment on whether he believed the majority of those who failed to turn up to vote were traditionally Nationalist voters.

Analyst Joe Pirotta said the parties should study in detail why so many had chosen to abstain from voting. In the last three years, about 90,000 individuals had refrained from voting in local elections.

He believes the difference between the two major parties was minimal, contrary to the big chasm between them in the local elections.

Prof. Pirotta said the Nationalists can still overturn the negative string of results in recent years but it has first to analyse the environmental vote and to refrain from over-trumpeting its achievements.

Ultimately, though, the Prime Minister still has a major trump card by selecting the right election date to give his party a head start.

In the meantime, the hunters' federation thanked its members for observing its directive. On the eve of the election, the federation instructed hunters to show their condemnation for the government's decision to stop finch trapping and hunting at sea.

Local elections

2005
PN: 44%
MLP: 53%
AD: 2%

2006
PN: 43%
MLP: 54%
AD: 2%

2007
PN: 44%
MLP: 53%
AD :2%

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