The major parties held huge mass meetings tonight as they wrapped up a month-long intensive electoral campaign.

The PN gathered its supporters on the granaries in Floriana while Labour supporerts returned to the Luxol grounds. A sudden downpour failed to dampen spirits in both venues, two days before Malta goes to the polls.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Opposition leader Alfred Sant also faced off on television in an hour-long debate where Dr Gonzi focused on his party's plans to maintain strong growth while Dr Sant said Malta needed a change from a government characterised by corruption and inefficiency.

The debate was opened by Dr Sant who said that major sectors of the economy had stagnated and people's living conditions had stagnated. Malta, he said, was at the last rung of the Lisbon Agenda scoreboard and the government was indifferent to rising living costs. He renewed the promise to halve the power surcharge and accused Dr Gonzi and the government of living a lie by not even recognising there was VAT on education.

Dr Gonzi said the Nationalist Party was promising young people an exciting future. It was also promising better living conditions for all sectors of the economy thanks to a programme which would invest heavily in children and not waste a year of their life, as Labour was proposing with its reception class. The PN, in contrast to the MLP, was promising in its electoral programme that health services would remain free and it would spend a record €300 million on the environment.

Dr Sant said there was a world of difference between what the government said and did. The Gonzi government had the slowest rate of growth of full time jobs since independence. Labour, he said, would eliminate corruption and abuse of power, such as the abuse evident when the police were sent to serve an arrest warrant on Harry Vassallo on the eve of the election.

Dr Gonzi had defended his incompetent ministers and MPs including Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando who, as a contract revealed by the MLP showed, was involved in plans to develop a disco in scenic Mistra Bay.

Replying, Dr Gonzi said the MLP was trying to win the government through mudslinging rather than plans for the future. But Dr Sant, while criticising the government of abuse, had refused to face Dr Pulliicino Orlando face to face and called in the police instead. Dr Gonzi said he did not know who was behind what had happened to Dr Vassallo and found it very strange how some policeman had decided now to serve an arrest warrant issued five months ago.

And as for living a lie, it was Lino Spiteri himself who had spoken of living a lie when Dr Sant, on his own, decided to replace VAT, with all the negative consequences that caused.

Dr Gonzi said he always quietly called in whoever was responsible to investigate allegations of irregularities. In contrast, Dr Sant when he went to the Police also called in the journalists, to make political mileage. That was what he was really interested in.

But, he said, the people could compare his record as PM with that of Dr Sant. He had restored government finances to a sound footing, the gainfully occupied were at record levels, unemployment was at a 12 year low, and tourism was reaching new heights. And people had more money in their pockets.

Dr Sant said it was Dr Gonzi who lied about plans to introduce healthcare costs. Labour was promising a free medical service and would cut hospital waiting lists. In the environment, Labour would give a priority to the cultural heritage and an effective waste separation system. It would also make progress in alternative sources of energy.

Dr Gonzi said the MLP programme did not say that healthcare would be free under Labour. And it was Dr Sant who introduced a tax on medical prescriptions and sickness certificates. It was Dr Sant who had said the people were the worst off with the new hospital, yet later he descrbed it as state of the art.

Dr Gonzi said Saturday would be the fifth anniversary of the EU membership referendum. Dr Sant, just five years ago, warned of a disaster for Malta should the island join the EU. The opposite had happened. And he said he had no regrets.

Dr Sant said Dr Gonzi had shown no regret in defending his inefficient ministers and their abuses and conflicts of interest. Malta had seen inefficiency such as how a new hospital was built without enough beds, and how most project over-ran with no control and accountability.

Now even the EU was warning that Malta faced an economic slowdown. Labour did not want that and would boost the economy by halving the surcharge, removing tax on overtime and helping industry grow. Tourism too would enjoy a new lease of life, as would manufacturing industry. And the success of the financial services industry would be promoted further. Gozo would see greater tourism facilities and new factories.

Dr Gonzi said Dr Sant was not even defending the MLP proposals, such as the reception class. A new PN government would invest heavily on education and build on its investment record which had seen successes such as SmartCity. People would be given every opportunity to work more and earn more. Women who continued to work would be given tax breaks for every child they had.

The PN was promising a future of confidence and peace of mind, Dr Gonzi said.

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