The electoral campaign will officially kick off on January 7 but the two main political parties have already made two major electoral gaffes.

The Labour Party’s decision to accept a request from Franco Debono to take part in what was supposed to be a televised debate between the party deputy leaders last Friday was a hideous misjudgment.

The PL evidently intended to embarrass Dr Busuttil and the PN by sending the backbencher who brought down his own government, and perhaps even to embarrass Dr Debono given it could predict how the MP would react when State television took the only option open to it, which was to cancel the programme.

The only two messages that came across from the debacle were that Labour feared its deputy leader was no match for his direct political adversary; and that Dr Debono behaved more like a spent barroom brawler than a civilised politician. The Labour Party should have taken a leaf out of the PN’s own book back in 1998 when Dom Mintoff helped to vote down the Sant government. Rather than call for a debate between Mr Mintoff and then deputy leader George Vella (which would have been an utterly pointless exercise), it wisely forged ahead with its strategy and won the election comfortably.

Presenting Dr Debono, an MP who has probably had more airtime on Xarabank and other media than practically every other politician, did not win any support from floating voters. Quite the contrary.

The PN’s strategic mistake came after a fictitious unsigned ‘notice of transfer’ was sent to the homes of government employees warning they would be transferred if Labour was elected. The PN twisted comments made by Opposition MP Helena Dalli who recently said a Labour government would rectify injustices in the public sector and workers who were under-qualified would be replaced by those who deserved the post.

Many of the thousands who received the letter, dated July 14, 2013, must have been concerned about the possibility of a new Labour government transferring workers for political expedience. But a number of letter recipients realised the depths to which the PN stooped in a bid to get their votes.

The Nationalist media fanned the claim over and over, hoping the mud will stick, irrespective of Labour’s claim to the contrary. It failed.

The stunt also raised some legitimate questions: from where did the PN obtain the civil servants’ home addresses? Was there a breach of data protection?

The practice of appointing people in the civil service not on merit but on political trust has unfortunately permeated the sector at various levels. Labour championed it in the 1970s and 1980s, the Nationalists continued it to a large extent.

With the electoral campaign picking up, political parties should at least try to ensure it does not morph into a dirty war.

The PN should build its campaign on the achievements registered over the last three legislatures, especially the way it succeeded to overcome the economic disasters that enveloped Europe.

Instilling the fear that opting for Labour in the upcoming election will signal a return to the terrible days of the 1980s will not wash.

Likewise, the Labour Party should build its campaign by fielding the right people and policies to provide an alternative government.

Political parties need to understand that the voters they need to persuade are no longer gullible and that dirty tricks often backfire.

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