Lawrence Gonzi, leader of the Nationalist Party, also Prime Minister, must have fumed when a copy of Saturday's The Times was passed on to him, with his party general secretary's usurpation of his prime-ministerial role highlighted. Joe Saliba, who holds no official role in Dr Gonzi's government, laid out the partisan reasons why the general election should be held in May 2008.

The Prime Minister always insists in public that he would call the general election when it is in the best interest of the country to do so. The PN general secretary granted that setting the date was the PM's prerogative. But were the PN to be 10 hypothetical points ahead of Labour, he would advise his leader to hold an election immediately. Bang goes the PM's national interest claim.

In case there was any doubt, Mr Saliba added that, if the circumstances remained as they are at the moment, common sense dictated that the election would be (held) next year. He did not have to define "common sense" as being common to the PN - the message was bluntly clear. Just in case it still was not, the general secretary spelled out the following: "The best period (to hold the election) is May 2008. For me that would be the best time and the time that makes most sense... both logistically and - (guess what?) - a common sense of point of view".

So much sensing makes one sense the PN senses that its tide is not in flood. That seemed to be borne out by an astounding revelation by the general secretary to The Times: Without doubt, he declared, a number of councils were lost by the Nationalist Party and were won by the Labour Party.

The implied meaning of that well-kept secret was very quickly swept away with a more astounding revelation. Mr Saliba stated, apparently with a straight face, that the PN was virtually neck and neck with the MLP. Nay, it was "actually slightly ahead".

That, the man in the hot seat heavily implied, was what the PN's surveys were telling him.

That must have both surprised as well as eased the worries of many of those just outside the inner PN circle privy to the details of the ongoing opinion soundings.

The most recent leak suggested that the Nationalists had cut down Labour's current lead in the opinion polls to 6,000 votes. That was before the recent round of local council elections. The Nationalist's weak performance in them, it seems, has helped to wipe out that deficit, and even gave the PN the lead.

That conclusion was contradicted in The Sunday Times' opinion survey yesterday, which suggested that quite a few more of those who would vote today intended voting Labour than Nationalist. But then, one in 10 respondents said they would abstain, and nearly a third of the survey sample would not say how they would vote.

The reality is that, despite the endless spinning that is going on, while the mood is against the government, no one can really predict the outturn of a general election that may be held between 12 and 16 months from now. The constant electioneering that is going on is premature.

Labour runs the risk of peaking too soon. The PN risks losing more credibility as various strata of society try to square own positions with the government's and the PN's claims. Meanwhile, as the silly neck and necking goes on, a fuming Prime Minister accountable to the people will be trying to regain his composure, and might have a quiet word with his non-accountable advisor.

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