The die is cast and they are off. Malta goes to the polls on March 8.The overlords at the respective party headquarters mobilised their trusted strategists and tacticians who, in turn, worked hand in hand with pollsters, street leaders, and local committees.

It took only a short time to fine-tune a machine capable of achieving optimum results. Every week that passes will now be precious because lost time cannot be recouped.

The climax of the electoral campaign is the moment when the respective political parties publish their manifestos.

Well before that point, each party would have stretched its resources to the limit to polish its road map, raise its battalions, and inspire its troops.

But leadership counts most. So does the relative quality of the electoral candidates at constituency level. The foundation stone on which to build a solid electioneering organisation is the party's general morale - that, and the general political and economic climate prevailing during the campaign.

It would, however, be a fatal mistake if one were to assume that it is the sheer force of political organisation that swings the electoral pendulum.

Increasingly, the free electorate is coming into its own. It is influencing electoral strategy and political tactics, and has learned fast how to swing and how to push politicians through the revolving door. This is how things should be in a functioning democracy.

For better or worse, the Maltese electorate has favoured the two-party system. For better, voter participation has been high and sustained. For worse, the main political parties have locked horns, almost in principle, on many issues, leaving little room for bipartisan cooperation.

The history of this adversarial relationship is long and, in many respects, deep-rooted. The fact that political power is exercised in a handkerchief-sized island may have a lot more to do with this problem than appears at first flush. The forces of clientelism corrode power. The rivalry generated by saints and fireworks in the village environment stokes the fuel of antagonism in most constituencies.

This is complicated by the fact that there are, as the expression goes in Maltese, 100 dogs for every bone. And of those 100 dogs, only a dozen or so are really interested in the bone. The rest are interested in preventing all those within reach from getting at the bone. This explains why Malta's political and economic progress has often been slow and painstaking, sometimes at excessive cost. The other side of the coin brings into relief the remarkable progress achieved since independence by way of building a generous social services structure and by enhancing the quality of life of many citizens, in spite of the aforesaid difficulties.

In a globalised world and in a climate of cutthroat competition, these hard-won standards can only be sustained by our unaided endeavours. No one owes us a living. Survival depends upon our ability to earn our passage. If this is a fair reading of our situation, everything else is subordinate to this reality. At the electoral level, there is a growing appreciation of this important consideration. It may turn out to be decisive at the next election.

The steep incidence of taxation, the fact that public expenditure is steadily overrunning the sharp rise in revenue, the fact that the Government is still incurring debts that have reached an unprecedented level - all of these have focussed attention on the end result: the inability of the economy to take off. There is still no light at the end of the tunnel. No amount of conjuring tricks by politicians, and no media acrobatics, will erase this reality. Neither is public opinion likely to be swayed on this score by grandiose visions to be realised in 10 years' time from today or even more.

Hard-nosed PN strategists will no doubt see to it that there will be some concessions to pacify electoral opinion. This will, however, go to confirm that the deficit (and mounting debt) problem is there, like Mount Everest, and demands relief. Even so, such relief will not conceal the fact that the Government's rising debt servicing bill has become an undeclared, yearly, surcharge.

Party politics apart, thousands of workers, pensioners, self employed and medium and small businesses are complaining that they are overtaxed and that they have been hard hit by this administration. Whether the PN will be able to offer the prospect of a safe pair of hands, capable of overcoming this handicap of its own creation, is another matter. Will it?

For electoral purposes, this question mark may well prove to be a decisive issue. Malta's sensitive floating vote will be reinforced by the bulk of the industrious, business-minded segment of the electorate if this issue will, as is likely, become the predominant argument at the election.

Irrespective of one's traditional party links, this segment of the electorate will think in terms of sheer survival rather than in terms of momentary bread-and-butter choices.

Is this scenario likely to emerge? And, if so, has the Maltese electorate reached a watershed which will herald the long awaited New Spring under new management? For this to happen, the sovereign Maltese electorate must come into its own and prevail over the political machines to take charge of Malta's destiny. Time will soon tell.

jgv@onvol.net