May 2008 election 'best option'

Nationalist Party general secretary Joe Saliba believes that in the current circumstances the best time to hold a general election would be in May next year "both logistically and from a common sense point of view".

Mr Saliba tells The Times in an interview today that holding the election at that time will allow space for a number of positive policies by the government to bear fruit and be seen by the electorate.

He also said that according to the PN's polls, the two main parties would be neck and neck if an election were to be held now.

However, he acknowledges there is a lot of work to be done by his party between now and the election.

"One of our tasks is to analyse why those people didn't vote and to encourage them to do so by the time an election comes. In every election the main principle is to get the vote out. Then the second step is to get them to vote Nationalist. That's something the PN has to work on," he said.