Local gloom in bad climate
Needless to say, the main interpretation of the local elections result will be political: Labour won a resounding victory.
Rather obviously, too, this will be seen as a pointer to the forthcoming general election. Both conclusions call for a harder look.
Labour’s success lies in its percentage of the total local councils vote, relative to that totted up by the Nationalist Party. A winning margin of 12 percentage points is no mean feat.
Yet, the totals suggest the gap was due much more to the decline in the Nationalist overall votes than to Labour additions. This indicates that a substantial percentage of Nationalist voters stayed away from the poll, more so than on the Labour side.
I wouldn’t put such abstentions mostly to bad weather. Saturday was a brute of a day with the gregale blowing as angrily as could be. But there were long gaps when it was easy enough to go about one’s business outside the house.
Point was that more Nationalists than Labourites did not feel it was political business as usual. They stayed away to transmit a message of dissatisfaction.
Their party will find solace in the fact that they did not switch sides. Simon Busuttil can lead a campaign to understand them better while Paul Borg Olivier coordinates the ministers to massage them mightily by election time.
Beating of the official breast will be accompanied by careful address of complaints. It will be the same old story of 2008, and of every previous general election, all over again.
If Saturday’s outcome does point towards a PN far from its pomp and a Labour Party progressing towards its peak, it does not make the general election result a foregone conclusion.
I expect Joseph Muscat to be the first to realise that, tightening strategy and tactics, with Lawrence Gonzi taking a deep breath and hitching up his political pants in determination to bring back power to his elbow. Inevitable macro-political analysis takes us away from the micro-scenario of the local councils themselves.
Their elections are of necessity political but they have become far too much so. Local elections are not, or, at least, should not be a national extension of the political parties, of the government and the opposition. At the national level, the two sides are endlessly at it, hammer and tongs, with the government always hiding its partisanship behind the national interest and with the opposition recalling the ancient maxim that the duty of the opposition is to oppose.
That, I hold, is not how it should be at the level of local councils. We should not elect councillors merely to do blunt politics. They should realise that they are there to put the citizens in their locality first. They should work together for the local good. The endless political game should be left to the national arena.
Sadly, the new local councils have not been elected in the right climate for such an approach. Politics is endlessly played at the local level as well. Revelations of the way a Nationalist mayor saw her opponents – she wishes them all dead, without apologising for the evil thought – has made it worse.
Lacing local politics with hatred is not the best recipe to guide them towards as much cooperation as can be in the interest of the common citizenry.
And, yet, if the political parties do recognise what the true function of local councils should be, and leave them to it, they would stand to gain from their wise stance. There will still be local councillors who err on an individual basis. But their errors would be human and personal rather than simultaneously tainting the party they belong to.
There will still be councillors, and councils, who do their job well, who really improve the conditions within which their electors live. They would get recognition for it but in the process show that politics is not such a silly game after all and that it matters to the citizen who his local representatives are.
On Saturday, in a climate of local politics being part and parcel of national politics, it evidently did not matter so much to the many thousands of voters who did not collect their votes or did so but chose not to cast it.
The political parties might do worse than see the moral in that.
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Wenzu Vella
Mar 13th 2012, 07:41
Mr Calleja, I see this point in time that could be your time of triumph to regain what is truly yours, the property that was taken from your family by the housing commission in Malta. The PN as everyone knows have their back against the wall. They are behind in the polls and the PM keep saying that he had his ears cleaned out so he will be able to hear the cries of the people in need. Take your chance and ring the PM and your PN member and I wish you well, and good luck.
Joseph Calleja
Mar 12th 2012, 17:44
Please stop making excuses and stop blaming the weather for lack of voting enthusiasm. Those who cared enough went to the polls and voted. Mr Spiteri, maybe people do not bother to vote because they gave up on our government and don't care anymore. To be honest, I think the government is more interested in the government than in the people's interest. Take a look at certain corruption . Take a look at the Air Malta mismanagement and the fiasco of Arriva which sent a Minister in hiding. Take a look at the turmoil in our parliament within our present government. Everything is not right at the present and it won't be for a long time. Our government is arrogant and it seems it is out of touch with the citizens who are wondering where they stand with this out of touch government. I have been writing about my requisitioned property for the last two years; do you think anybody cares? Of course not! Question: Why can't I evict my squatter tenants like modern landlords can? Why do I and my siblings have to wait for two generations of squatter tenants to die or move away before I can get my property back? Like many others maybe I should say, why should I care? The way I feel is that " THE GOVERNMENT TAKE AWAY AND THE GOVERNMENT IS OBLIGATED TO GIVE IT BACK. You are very familiar with the requisition and derequisition of property in the early seventies and hopefully you can understand why a lot of us don't give much of a damn about the government in general. This present government had a chance to fix this huge injustice but they did not. I am asking for something that belonged to my father and now belongs to me and my siblings. However, because of barbaric and archaic laws in this country I cannot take back what is mine and what the government took away from my father. So back to the question, maybe the reason why people do not bother to vote is because they lost trust in the government. I know I have!
Mr ALBERT LEONE GANADO
Mar 12th 2012, 17:30
As LS rightly points out the local elections have been a resounding victory for the PL but as he also rightly cautions this does not automatically map into the general elections being a foregone conclusion and therefore the PL must work even harder to convince the electorate that it is just as trustworthy,capable and reformist at the national level to take over government as it has successfully done at the local council elections. One must bear in mind the power of incumbency which normally gives the party in power a significant advantage and find ways of counteracting it. However notwithstanding incumbency there is a converse achievable winning position when the electorate sitting on the fence realise that the opposition is highly likely to win at which stage they pluck up courage and take the final decisive step to vote for it. Playing well and achieving this winning position should be the next game plan for the PL strategists.
Joseph Calleja
Mar 12th 2012, 18:13
Mr Leone Ganado so far neither party has impressed me as a respectful government. The PN is finding themselves short changed by their own people and the PL does not have the full trust of the people. These two leaders have to change their ways and yes, get closer to the people they represent and stop acting so arrogant towards the citizen. Talk is very cheap and it is time for both leaders to listen to what the people have to say.
Alfred Farrugia
Mar 12th 2012, 16:55
Why should politics at the national level not be more or less the same as at the local level? Are the citizens at the local level not the same citizens who are supposed to be served by the central government? Should the policies at the two levels not converge?
If I understand correctly what the Hon. Prime Minister said yesterday, he drew up his speech of two weeks ago in such a way because he was expecting this kind of result and wanted to prepare his own followers for such a result! It means that this administration has failed in its task over the past 4 years and the Prime Minister was expecting a “vote of no confidence” not from his councilors, but from half of the electorate! The EU incidentally has not voted for a reduction of a “lira” from the government’s Budget but has demanded a reduction of 40 million euro! Is this not another “vote of no confidence”?
Why should the 4 observations made by the Prime Minister yesterday not apply at the national level? Should the government Members at the national level not also show seriousness, integrity and dedication? Should they not show efficiency, energy and creativity without undue partisanship? Should they not avoid arrogance? Should they not also listen to the voice of their constituents and take appropriate action? Or was the Prime Minister indirectly addressing his own Ministers yesterday? It is clear that this administration has failed to address the needs of the people for 4 years and more, at not only at the local level but perhaps more so at the national level. That is the meaning of yesterday’s election result.
J. Borg
Mar 12th 2012, 09:15
In these elections, one has to take account also that foreign residents are eligible to vote. Though many didn't bother to collect their voting document others did.
It would be a good exercise to see how many foreign residents did in fact voted in the elections. When the general elections come this want take place!!!!!!!!!!!
Please choose the reason of your report below: