Designated leader

Joseph Muscat was yesterday given the political mandate by the delegates of the Malta Labour Party to lead the opposition to the Gonzi government. However, Dr Muscat's path to assert his authority on the political and institutional scene is still many steps away.

He faces a complex path before taking up the most important political platform for any Leader of the Opposition, namely the parliamentary arena.

Dr Muscat contemporaneously faces the more daunting task of asserting his authority on a very factious MLP and over the shadow of the party machinery.

The institutional path is not to be underestimated even in its political effects. Dr Muscat faces a somewhat long period of time before officially taking the title of Leader of the Opposition in that he is not a member of Parliament. Until then, the Constitution precludes the President from appointing him Leader of the Opposition. Until this happens in terms of the Constitution, Dr Muscat is to be considered "designate" Leader of the Opposition.

The President has only two days ago acted in terms of the Constitution by accepting Alfred Sant's resignation in observance of the constitutional rule providing that the Leader of the Opposition must also be both a sitting MP and the leader of the party in opposition. There could not exist a situation whereby the official Leader of the Opposition was not also the official leader of the opposition party.

Equally, the new "designate" Leader of the Opposition cannot assume his office until he becomes an MP. Such an event can only take place after the MLP goes through the constitutional manoeuvres of first provoking a parliamentary vacancy by getting a sitting Labour MP to resign and then by persuading the unelected Labour candidates from the same district not to contest the bye-election, thereby enabling the MLP to co-opt or nominate Dr Muscat as the uncontested MP for the district and who only then will become their official Leader of the Opposition in terms of the Constitution.

Another important institutional step to be taken by Dr Muscat before officially claiming the post of Leader of the Opposition is to resign as member of the European Parliament, a legal obligation imposed by the European Parliament Elections Act. Dr Muscat must, therefore, first stop being an MEP before officially becoming a Maltese MP, opening the way for him to finally occupy the important role of Leader of the Opposition.

This may seem all very legal and formalistic. However, Dr Muscat desperately requires the vital political platform which the parliamentary debate offers particularly to a new Leader of the Opposition who will be judged by the country on his ability to tackle head on both the Prime Minister and his government during question time and during the ordinary course of parliamentary debate.

This raises the other political question facing Dr Muscat: How he will deal with the issue of the MLP administration, which became a very hot issue during the campaign for the leadership.

At least two candidates - George Abela and Michael Falzon - had an issue with what they described as the involvement of the MLP administration in the leadership race, an issue which Dr Muscat steered clear from.

Not only. For the same reason both Dr Abela and Dr Falzon made it very clear that they would find it difficult to work with the party's secretary general should either of them become leader.

This clearly puts the spotlight on how Dr Muscat will act in regard to the existing MLP administration. The perceived established order within the party clearly shot down unceremoniously the proposal that the MLP members elect the leader. The report on the electoral defeat also was seen as a pawn in the complex political internal struggle for leadership.

All these factors put together indicate that the shock waves arising from the last general election are still to be absorbed by the MLP. Many political indicators are showing that the margin for radical change within the MLP seems to be very narrow for their new leader.

Naturally, only time will tell. However, one vital requirement for a new start for the MLP is that the party stops shooting from the hip. How many times have we heard that the PN's electoral victory was diminished due to it being by a relative majority, albeit by only a small margin away from an absolute majority.

Now, once more, the boomerang effect has hit the MLP in that the first vote which mattered for the leadership victory was won by Dr Muscat by a relative majority albeit also by a small margin from an absolute majority!

Does Dr Muscat feel any less diminished about his victory than the PN should about theirs?