The court's decision against the Labour Party last week was another reason why Labour was the underdog in the forthcoming general election, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning.
A court on Friday ordered the Electoral Commission to allocate an extra two seats to the PN because of mistakes made in the vote-counting process in 2013. Labour will not lose any seats.
But speaking this morning in Kirkop Dr Muscat said: "Once the court took away two seats, we need to make sure that in the next election that the people return them to us with interest."
Dr Muscat said it was disappointing that a possible mistake of 50 votes in the vote-counting process had translated into two extra seats for the PN.
This decision, he said, showed how Labour was the underdog. Even when it won a general election handsomely, some tried to take away some of what it had won.
If anything, this court decision showed how Labour was not part of the establishment, he said.
The government, despite its disappointment, would continue to respect the courts as an institution, he said. The decision would not affect the government, which had a big parliamentary majority, but it could have repercussions on future government, he warned .
Dr Muscat said, he wished to thank Simon Busuttil for the 'manifest arrogance' he displayed after the decision became known, recounting how somebody had phoned him to say it was the sort of thing which would lead him to vote Labour once more after initially considering not voting.
DISMISSALS FROM ACTAVIS
Referring to the planned dismissal of nearly 200 workers from Actabis/Arrow, Dr Muscat said the government starting working on this issue immediately and was in a position to assure the workers that they would have alternative work.
Indeed, after the government's initial feelers that did not include the new investment from Crane, two major companies had said they were ready to take up half of the workers who would be dismissed from Actavis.
Dr Muscat said the problem Malta had was that it may not have enough workers for the jobs being created, an issue the government was tackling with urgency so that it would to harm investment. Mcast, among other institutions was launching more courses to ensure Malta had the skilled workers it needed.
Importantly, last week the government announced a revamp of secondary schools which would include the introduction of more vocational subjects. Education, he said, would be personalised rather than a 'one size fits all'.
But in continuing to create jobs, the government also wanted to ensure that the workers had a good take-home pay, and he looked forward to consensus on improving the minimum wage. In the absence of agreement, the government would have to take its own measures.
Another important reform, he said, was the launching of the patients' charter with timelines coming into force in the coming months on the maximum waiting times for treatment. This showed the progress made since this government solved the problems of medicines out of stock and long hospital waiting lists.
Dr Muscat said he smiled when he saw comments about how works at the newly part-privatized St Luke's and the other hospitals not having started yet, a situation which contrasted sharply with earlier criticism when works were being taken in hand allegedly without all permits having been issued.
REVOLUTIONARY PLAN FOR TRANSPORT
Dr Muscat said Labour was a government of change and he repeated a promise he made on Thursday that ahead of the next election it would present a plan for a 'revolutionary' change in the infrastructure where it involves transport.