Labour leader Alfred Sant insisted last night he will only confront Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando in court and in the presence of his lawyer.
"He expected to hold a debate with me, but I will not talk to people like him," he said, referring to Dr Pullicino Orlando's invitation for a face-to-face duel of words over the alleged case of corruption at Mistra valley.
Admired by many for his stand on safeguarding the environment, Dr Pullicino Orlando had his reputation put on the line by the Labour Party with accusations that he was involved in a plan to destroy part of the pristine valley.
In a bid to clear his name, in the past days Dr Pullicino Orlando was turning up at Dr Sant's press conferences challenging him to reply to his questions, with Dr Sant steering clear of him on each occasion.
Instead, Dr Sant chose to present the documents and evidence of "this corruption" to build a nightclub, taking up to 8,000 revellers, to the Police Commissioner, yesterday.
"What did (Prime Minister Lawrence) Gonzi do? After some time he sent (PN general secretary) Joe Saliba to back him, and again said nothing.
"Then we see Pullicino Orlando crying on television," he said, in a sarcastic tone, as the crowd gathered in Qormi jeered. The event kicked off with fireworks as the crowd greeted their leader with a display of colourful squibs (suffarelli), which were outlawed some time ago - lit right under the nose of three policemen - but which have suddenly resurfaced to usher in party officials in style.
Speaking in metaphoric terms, he stressed that if Dr Gonzi was serious about corruption and gets a whiff of it, then he should have locked the room to ensure the evidence remains intact and is not swept under the carpet before the police are brought in.
"Instead, Gonzi left the room open for the clues to disappear and then wrote to the Police Commissioner asking him to investigate," Dr Sant said, once again pledging zero tolerance on corruption if Malta votes Labour on Saturday.
Under a Labour government, every minister will have to separate their private interests to ensure there was no conflict of interest. His party would also resurrect the 1994 Galdes report on party funding to establish greater transparency.
He ended his speech by appealing to the crowd not to be swayed by lies and to work to convince those who were still uncertain that Labour was the party of truth.
Addressing yesterday's event health spokesman Michael Farrugia held out a report, which he said showed that the number of surgeries in January had dropped by 238, compared to the same period last year, due to the shortage of beds.
He also criticised the government for the fact that a list of medicines remained out of stock and people were getting out of pocket as a result.
Deputy leader Michael Falzon wooed the audience telling them Qormi was one of the towns considered to be "the thermometer of the country".
"And now the thermometer is going up and marking Labour," he said, as the crowd cheered and started chanting "Viva l-Labour, Viva l-Labour, hey, hey!"