Off they go. Another specific electoral campaign has opened. I say specific because Malta is always in campaign mode. It is the only place I know where the political leaders do not take a breather, unless forced on them or for a few days annually. It is a case of ‘politics always on Sunday’. Which is why some matter or other is endlessly raked up for serious or futile debate.
At the moment, the fires rage round a request by the Education Department for student data required for research purposes. That data includes the identity card number, and that, according to some students, the Opposition and a lawyer or two, is equal to spying on the students’ private life.
The ID number is the basic and most common piece of individual information in use. It is required in every public or private form one is required to fill. It helps to trace personal applications and records.
Above all, it is not really private information. The ID card number of every person over 18 is available in the electoral register, which is presumably why the Data Protection Commissioner told the Education Department there was no objection to it requesting the information from students, especially for the most practical of purposes.
The ability to turn everything into a controversy is bewildering. It is also time-wasting, turning attention off really serious issues. But that is the way it goes in the game of permanent politics. That game becomes specific when the electorate is asked to express its judgement on the way things are going in local, general and European Parliament elections.
Now it is the turn of the latter. Six members of the European Parliament will be elected through voting to be held in a few weeks’ time. Thirty three hopeful candidates have put in their nominations, even if in the knowledge that they stand no chance of being elected.
The nomination is the least of it. Or at least, should be, unless mired in controversy of a different type, as in the case of sitting MEP Joseph Cuschieri, who felt hard done by his party, the Labour Party, decided not to stand but then changed his mind. Beyond the nomination is the campaigning that needs to be done.
That starts with individual candidates. They have a mountain to climb, since Malta and Gozo, for the purpose of European Parliament elections, are considered to be one constituency. Few of the candidates have the resources to allow them to campaign all over the islands, as candidates in general elections do in their constituencies, where to contest in one is demanding enough.
The essence of the campaign is left to the parties themselves to conduct. So they take fresh aim with their ongoing controversies to adapt them to the work in hand. Inevitably that work, in any of the three types of elections mentioned, places the government at the receiving end, unless it is able to turn the tables.
It is probable that Labour will gain a majority of the votes, but it will be nowhere near the massive margin of the general election
For instance, in the May elections, voters will be indicating what they think of the performance of the Labour government in its first year in power. In these elections, the government of the day always tends to be hammered. It would be surprising if that did not happen in May.
Voters will be expressing themselves in various ways. Most will go to the ballot box and express their preferences under the list of candidates, with a very few of them spoiling the ballot paper. Others will effectively vote by staying at home, denying all the contestants any joy.
It is possible that the absentee voters will be more substantial than usual in what will be a relatively low turnout. There will be the usual sceptics who do not bother to vote under any circumstances. There will also be a substantial chunk of those who voted in the March general election who will stay away this time round. They will include some of those who had switched from the Nationalist to the Labour side. They will pause for reflection, uncertain whether they had done the right thing.
There will also be a tally of Labourites who voted in high hopes in March 2013 but are disappointed because their expectations have not been realised. Labour will suffer from the squeeze. And there will be abstentions by the hunters lobby, expressing a curse on all political houses.
There will also be actual switchers, preponderantly Nationalists who migrated to Labour 14 months ago. Their vote will count double for the PN.
It is probable that the Labour Party will gain a majority of the valid votes, but it will be nowhere near the massive margin of the general election, and will yield three MEPs against the sitting exceptional four.
All these ifs, should they materialise, will converge into a message to the Labour government. It will be one of marginal disaffection.
Has Prime Minister Joseph Muscat anticipated that disaffection with his Cabinet reconstruction? Possibly not, especially since he left some arrogance, including among chiefs of staff, in place. He is likely to do some rethinking.
One striking aspect of the European Parliament elections is the likelihood that Alfred Sant will be the star performer, amassing untold thousands of votes. Some are already expressing shock, even disgust, at the prospect.
Why should they? He was and remains a eurosceptic in terms of Malta’s fit in the EU. Whether one agrees or disagrees with him, he definitely knows what he is talking about and will make that clear at every opportunity.
Rather than enduring criticism he is more likely to attract close attention from the other Maltese MEPs.
Whoever they are, one hopes they will not see the European Parliament as an avenue where to air their domestic grievances. That is not the way they should be earning their salary and allowances.