The vote for 16-year-olds in these council elections was only the first step towards giving young people the vote in general elections, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this evening.
Speaking at a political activity in Floriana, he appealed to them to vote on Saturday and help write history with the government.
Dr Muscat, who also addressed another activity in Sta Lucija earlier in the evening, said that the people’s choice on Saturday was not just for the people they wanted to administer their locality but it was also one between optimism and negativity.
He said the people had to decide whether they wanted the government to continue to implement its programme or a negative opposition whose leader was confirming he had nothing to offer.
“Those who do not vote on Saturday would be doing Simon Busuttil a favour.
“I come to you humbly, enthusiastically and with conviction. I come to you because I know that this is a government that works hard, that is doing its utmost. We are not perfect and that there are still problems we have not solved…”
Dr Muscat said council elections were always won by the Opposition the world over, “we want to turn that tide and win the elections even if by a slight, a one-vote majority,” he said.
He dwelt on the government’s achievements in the past two years including the rise in employment and the lowering of fuel and water and electricity rates.
Speaking in Floriana later in the evening, he said that a total of 2,500 jobs were announced in the past four weeks alone and the government’s work would not stop come Saturday but “the best is yet to come”.
The government’s challenge now, he said, is for most of these jobs to go to Maltese and Gozitan workers.
He said Malta had a problem of a skills mismatch with investors not finding the qualified people they needed for the jobs being created so foreigners had to be imported.
Major investment had to be carried out in education for the jobs being created to be taken up by the Maltese.
Replying to criticism about the rise in government employment, he said that the government had had to take on the 900 people who used to be employed with Arriva to safeguard their job. There had now returned to the private sector.
The same could be said for fuel. While the Opposition used to criticise the government that the price of fuel in Malta was higher than the European average, government policy was now bearing results as this was now not only cheaper than the European average but also stable.
He criticised the Opposition leader for being absent and “avoiding journalists saying he had a lot to answer to about the “work for votes” racket.
He said the Opposition leader was now also calling people at all hours with a recorded message.
Dr Muscat also spoke on the introduction of the Gender Identity Act which place Malta at the forefront of countries to introduced such a law.
From one of the most backward countries which did not even have divorce, Malta was now being described as “a beacon of hope”, he said as he criticised the Opposition leader for failing to show up for the vote on the bill.