Just over a year ago, Joseph Muscat was swept to power by the widest of margins. He was elected for two clear reasons: he promised to do things better than the outgoing Nationalist government and he promised to usher in a new style of doing politics.

No one expected the new Labour Administration to be perfect. But one year on, Muscat has failed to live up to expectations.

The manner in which he abandoned the central policy pledges of his electoral campaign left many people with a bitter aftertaste.

Just over a year ago, the new Prime Minister promised that his new Administration would be built on unprecedented meritocracy.

Yet, within hours of taking office, Muscat had axed the Principal Permanent Secretary and removed all but two of the government’s permanent secretaries.

What followed was a systematic wipeout of representatives on boards, entities, departments and their replacement with party acolytes with not the slightest of experience in governance.

In one short year, over 1,400 people have been added to the public payroll, funded by the taxpayer.

Whereas the trend had in recent years been to reduce the size of government, Labour dished out jobs to all those who had helped it gain power in one way or another.

Just over a year ago, the new Prime Minister promised to give an added impetus to job creation and attracting new investment to Malta.

Yet, despite the jobs for the boys, Muscat has struggled with rising unemployment.

He has offered no new ideas on the development of new economic sectors for the diversification of our economy and the amount of new businesses formed during the first year of his leadership is lower than the previous government’s track record at the height of the global recession.

Just over a year ago, the new Prime Minister asked us all to believe he had a road map for the health sector.

Under his stewardship, the government listed medicine products would not only be given out free of charge but delivered to patients’ doorsteps.

Waiting lists would become a thing of the past and patients would no longer be treated in hospital corridors.

Yet, today, waiting lists have started rising once more; the waiting list for eye cataract operations rose by 400 new patients in the first year of Labour.

The government is calling corridors “wards” in a bid to hide the obvious fact that it is losing control of hospital overcrowding.

Joseph Muscat has been found most wanting in the way he conducts matters of governance

For the first time, politics has crept into the distribution of free medicine; the government is distinguishing between those who receive their medicine entitlement and those who don’t.

Above all, Muscat has been found most wanting in the way he conducts matters of governance.

He is regularly caught lying or misleading Parliament, the press and the public at large as he did just last week in trying to hide the Henley & Partners contract from the public. This also betrays his promise of taking transparency to new heights.

Muscat regularly discards the moral high ground as he did with the Cyrus Engerer case.

By taking the decision to embrace a convicted criminal and allow him to retain his posts in the civil service, Muscat set a sad precedent. Whatever happened to accountability?

He regularly rides roughshod over people’s concerns, even when the vast majority are dead set against a policy consideration or project.

The decision to go ahead with anchoring a tanker full of gas in Marsaxlokk Bay, despite the multitude of concerns raised by businesses, experts and the public, is a clear example of this.

To add insult to injury, whenever the Prime Minister is challenged on one of his decisions, his standard reaction is to go silent for one or two days to dig up some case from the previous 25 years of Nationalist administration which can remotely be linked to the questions he is being asked.

Muscat promised to do things better. But power has clearly gone to his head, a sentiment expressed by several of this newspaper’s key columnists, such as Martin Scicluna.

Labour MP Marlene Farrugia, one of his own, has also expressed concern at growing arrogance at all levels of government and that the country is being run by a clique.

This Saturday’s election serves as a unique opportunity to send a clear, unequivocal message to Muscat to take heed of public concerns and to keep in touch with the people he is there to serve.

This election will not change the Labour government but it could compel Muscat to remember that the landslide electoral victory should not be taken for granted.

This Saturday choose the best candidates to represent you in the European Parliament.

But you can also use your vote to send a clear message to Muscat.

Simon Busuttil is leader of the Nationalist Party.