The Labour Party’s electoral manifesto will be out in the middle of this week when delegates will be asked to approve it in an extraordinary general conference.

The party has come under fire from political opponents for releasing its proposals in piecemeal fashion since the beginning of the campaign.

A party spokesman yesterday defended the strategy by which aspects of the manifesto were unveiled almost daily over a span of weeks.

“We wanted to focus on particular issues and give people the opportunity to scrutinise our proposals rather than lump them with an extensive document at one go,” the spokesman said.

More than 100 proposals have been made since the start of the electoral campaign, he added, and more will be released in the coming days. “Publishing the proposals at one go risked sidelining some issues,” he said.

The Labour Party started its campaign at one minute past midnight on January 17 and unveiled its flagship proposal to reduce water and electricity tariffs two days later.

In the initial stages Labour hit out at the Nationalist Party for keeping quiet about its proposals.

The PN approved its manifesto on January 25 but since then the tables have turned on Labour as it persisted with its daily policy disclosures. The PN manifesto contains 125 proposals.

Alternattiva Demokratika was the first party to publish its manifesto when it was approved by members at the start of the campaign. It is more than 90 pages long covering various policy areas.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com