Convince two voters each, appeals Gonzi

Nationalist supporters in Sliema yesterday. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday urged supporters to each convince two undecided people to vote for the Nationalist Party.

“You gave me a task for five years. I am giving you a task for the next five days. If you do this, on March 9 we will vote and on March 10 we will celebrate,” he told throngs of supporters that filled Dingli Street in Sliema in what seemed to be PN’s biggest mass meeting during this campaign.

Dr Gonzi said the PN was the only party that could be trusted with the most important thing: job creation. However, he acknowledged that a new PN Government had to improve the way it communicated with people.

People deserved to be treated with dignity, justice, efficiency, politeness, respect and dedication, he said.

“We must put people at the centre of our attention again. Modern society deserves that we follow this principle,” he said.

Citizens must be given their dues when they are right, and when they are not, they deserve to be given a dignified explanation in a timely manner, he said, urging public servants to follow these principles.

Dr Gonzi said jobs were the “be all and end all” because nothing else could be done without economic growth and sound finances.

He warned that the Labour Party was stuck in the past and still believed closing the shipyards was a bad idea, despite the fact that it was draining taxpayers’ money.

“When you go to vote, keep in mind that red means unemployment and blue means work,” he said, adding that some people were trying to give a blue tinge to the colour red, “but red it would remain”.

Dr Gonzi warned voters that if they did not want a Labour government they must vote for the Nationalist Party.

Earlier, PN deputy leader Simon Busuttil urged disgruntled Nationalists to put aside their own personal hurt and vote for the national interest. He said he was personally determined to be there for voters after the election as part of a new PN government.