We are already in the 11th day of the election campaign; 23 days to go and the electorate will be choosing the new government for the next legislature. In an intensive campaign for all political parties, every leader has a key role to play, particularly to convince the voting public that his ideas are the best. But someone who has been desperately crying for power for the last 10 years is still unpersuasive and unconvincing; his vision is lacking ideas and he is constantly making political gaffes.

The Malta Labour Party is shouting for a change and guess what they have planned if they get elected to government? Alfred Sant is promising his supporters that a Labour rule will refurbish Il-Maċina, the former MLP headquarters. This is surely a national project!

Labour is saying that if they are in power, they would promote solar energy for it to be sold to Enemalta. Does Dr Sant not realise that this is already being done by the present Administration? This scheme already exists but Dr Sant has been so long in opposition he has lost track of all the good things done by the Nationalist government. I don't blame him.

What's more, the Opposition Leader is saying he will reopen EU negotiations, mentioning also shipyards and stressing that he would not find any problems to do so.

Again, Dr Sant is deceiving and misleading the electorate because it's almost impossible to renegotiate terms with the European Union. I think the MLP leader should know better. He should know that in order to change anything in the Accession Treaty he must negotiate with the European Commission and all the governments of the other states, meaning 26 different governments. Can he do this? It's almost impossible, particularly when one considers Dr Sant's reputation with the EU.

He was the one that since the beginning campaigned heavily against Malta's membership of the EU, was critical of what he called a "sham referendum" claiming that a general election would only settle the issue of Malta joining the EU, hence, he literally opted to boycott the referendum (coincidentally five years ago, precisely on the same day of the upcoming general election). This episode led to another dead end when Dr Sant chose to add the dead, the sick, the moribund, invalid voters and all type of abstentions as votes for his "partnership".

Additionally, he lost the general election of 2003 and now he wants to reopen negotiations with the EU. This is clearly not done and this was reported last Sunday, quoting a spokesman for the Commission: "What is agreed in the Accession Treaty is a done deal".

Members of the European Parliament confirmed that what Dr Sant is saying regarding renegotiating with the EU can't take place or else it's close to impossible. Yet, despite these political gaffes, the Opposition Leader is now presenting himself to the electorate as an EU expert.

What about the "super" proposal that a student in primary school will have to repeat a year? This was another gaffe by the MLP and Dr Sant himself as they were proven to have lied by the Malta Union of Teachers who claimed they were never consulted about this proposal. The Labour proposal was heavily criticised by the majority of the people working in the educational sector and by parents.

Dr Sant is calling for a "new beginning" but he is still acting the same way he used to do before the EU referendum and the last general election campaign, attacking sections of the independent media. Whoever doesn't agree with Dr Sant and his party becomes their adversary.

On the third day of the election campaign, in a desperate bid to win some votes, socialist shadow minister Joe Mizzi was claiming on his website that, if elected, he would extract oil!

To make it even worse, Dr Sant promised in Ċirkewwa that, if elected Prime Minister, he would conduct oil exploration and extract oil. This is a clear example of a déjà vu!

It's a never ending list; probably Dr Sant would have committed more gaffes by the time this article is published.

Some people never change! Dr Sant has been a political leader for too long and it's time for him to leave: too many political gaffes and too many u-turns for him to be given a second chance as Prime Minister.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Laurence Gonzi has proved himself several times to be the ideal man to show us the way forward and achieve concrete results. The vision of the Nationalist Party in government is ambitious.

United we can reach every single goal. The targets set by the PN are realistic and, as the Prime Minister is often insisting during this election campaign, the aim of a Nationalist government is to achieve a surplus in 2010. Under a Labour government, moreover in a country led by Dr Sant, this target would have never been set.

Mr Casa is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.

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