The longest election campaign in the past 25 years had its fair share of scandals but ended more civilly than in 2008. Christian Peregin recalls the most memorable episodes.

If the final billboards of the two major political parties were anything to go by, those who voted yesterday were asked to choose between tranquillity and change.

It was the calmer Big Debate organised by The Times that brought out some key policy differences between the parties on issues like hunting and immigration

PN’s last billboard showed a serene family near the tagline So We Can Keep Living in Peace, while Labour presented leader Joseph Muscat calling voters to Unite for Change.

These messages ended a tiring nine-week campaign, which began at the stroke of midnight on January 7 with Labour’s unveiling of its rallying cry ‘Malta Belongs to Us All’ (Malta Tagħna Lkoll). The next day, PN responded by promising ‘A Secure Future’ (Futur fis-Sod) built on the three pillars: jobs, healthcare and education.

But beyond the buzzwords, it was Labour’s long-awaited energy plan that stole the limelight for the first part of the campaign.

Promising to reduce energy bills by an average of 25 per cent by investing in gas infrastructure, Labour’s spokesman Konrad Mizzi found himself in the spotlight for weeks, as Finance Minister Tonio Fenech worked to shoot holes in Labour’s plan.

A seemingly endless stream of TV debates and press conferences eventually caused voters to tune out, but things were quickly revived on January 20 when news emerged of corruption at the State energy corporation Enemalta.

Leaked invoices of allegedly illegal commissions made it to Malta Today’s front page, sparking a police investigation that would see seven arraignments until the end of the campaign, including that of former Enemalta chairman Tancred Tabone.

But as people digested corruption allegations, the parties continued with their campaigns, turning their attention to education.

Labour proudly proposed to equip each child in Year 4 with a tablet in its “unprecedented fight against illiteracy and digital illiteracy”.

Within an hour, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi promised to do the same with schoolchildren of all years as part of a wider project that would see digital content specifically created for Maltese curriculum.

Though this ignited heated political debates in primary school classrooms, the electorate was less impressed as voters and the third party, Alternattiva Demokratika, accused the parties of trying to buy their votes with ‘freebies’.

The two parties responded by presenting more proposals, with Labour announcing different pledges everyday and PN unveiling its entire electoral programme during a general conference.

However, PN struggled to gain momentum and was even dealt a sobering message from its former leader Eddie Fenech Adami who warned in an interview with The Sunday Times that young people were not interested in what happened in the 1980s – a permanent element of PN’s campaign against Labour.

If January’s focus was proposals, February quickly degenerated into a more personal style of politics.

A biting interview with Labour’s axed deputy leader Anġlu Farrugia in The Sunday Times raised suspicions about whether the party’s slick campaign was being funded by contractors.

PN upped the tempo by publishing a secret recording of Tony Zarb talking about how his General Workers’ Union can help give a push to certain companies especially under a Labour government.

Labour shrugged off the claims and focused attention on its own chunky manifesto, which incorporated more than 800 proposals.

But Dr Gonzi quickly stole back the limelight by bringing home a €1.12 billion EU-budget package from Brussels after tough negotiations.

At the same time, PN’s deputy leader Simon Busuttil dealt his party an unfortunate blow when he told Labour candidate Deborah Schembri she was being used for her “Nationalist face”. Despite Labour’s outrage, PN continued digging a hole by putting up a billboard showing Dr Gonzi and Dr Muscat with blue and red face-paint respectively.

Meanwhile, another secret recording was published, this time of Labour deputy leader Toni Abela speaking about an incident where he told the police not to take action on a report of violence at a Labour party club.

After Dr Abela mounted a passionate defence, PN issued a second recording where he spoke about another incident where a man was found cutting up a “white block” in the kitchen of another party club. The case had not been reported to the police.

The case of the “white block” gained more significance when PN published letters to Dr Muscat showing he knew about the incident but also failed to report it to the police.

Eventually, in an interview with The Sunday Times, Dr Muscat acknowledged that the case could have been handled better and that mistakes had been made by all involved.

In the meantime, the PN accused Labour officials and candidates of being behind the oil scandal, prompting the resignation of Labour’s financial administrator Joe Cordina who vowed to defend his innocence.

Labour fought back, accusing Finance Minister Tonio Fenech of having received a €5,000 gift from rogue oil trader George Farrugia, who has been given a presidential pardon to reveal all about the commissions scandal. Mr Fenech denied the claim but later admitted Mr Farrugia had once accompanied his brother Ray to Mr Fenech’s flat to give him a Maltese clock made by Ray Farrugia’s wife as a token of her admiration.

Transport Minister Austin Gatt also insisted he had no involvement in oil corruption, claiming e-mails between oil traders in which he was mentioned were fabricated. He also insisted his Swiss bank account was inherited from his parents and had not seen transactions in 40 years.

The campaign took a lighter unexpected twist when the jovial independent candidate Zaren Bonnici made a self-fulfilling promise to hold the “biggest ever” mass meeting.

His audacious statement drew large crowds to Żabbar where people cheered the man also known as Tal-Ajkla, though many admitted they were only there to join the fun and take a break from the campaign.

The internet also played a strong part in the campaign, with various billboards, campaign videos and memes going viral, while many complained about receiving unsolicited e-mails and SMSs from the parties. Perhaps the most viral initiative was Labour’s controversial Courage to Vote video which depicted an English-speaking family discussing politics.

The campaign also saw a large number of debates between the leaders of the three political parties, primarily at University and Mcast, where Labour supporters dominated. In most cases, Dr Gonzi reiterated the importance of creating 25,000 jobs, while Dr Muscat spoke about the need for the country to unite behind change.

But it was the calmer Big Debate organised by The Times that brought out some key policy differences between the parties on issues like hunting and immigration. From then on, the campaign maintained a calmer tone as PN denied persistent rumours that it had saved a big personal scandal until the last minute.

With polls still showing Labour has maintained its strong lead throughout the nine weeks, the campaigns closed with an enormous Labour mass meeting at Ħal Far and an iconic PN mass meeting at the Floriana Granaries addressed by Dr Fenech Adami.

The rest, as they say, is history.

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