It is our right and duty to vote so that together we ordinary people can determine who will be sitting in Parliament, and on which side they sit. In other words, the next five years of our own prosperity and that of Malta depends on how we vote.

We must filter through the partisan ping-pong of accounts of action or lack of action so that we can decide intelligently which party is able to bring about greater development within our social and economic sectors. Certainly you should vote for whom you believe could best represent you in Parliament and not to settle a score for some disappointment or grudge borne over the past legislature. Election day is our opportunity to further our best interests, that of our family and also that of our dear island.

Whether or not all our personal expectations of a Nationalist government have been met, it would be reckless for us to fail to acknowledge its dynamism in the past years.

While Dr Sant screams Mandra Malta, we are reaping the benefits of so many government projects - the average family has certainly seen the value of the investment in education and in Mater Dei Hospital; foreign investment is already providing highly paid positions to Maltese workers; we are also doing well in the EU. All of this despite the Opposition's relentless nagging, barrage of allegations and prophecies of doom.

We Maltese have been scientifically found to be among the happiest people, yet for the Opposition we are in a mess and we need a new beginning. If we do, where will our new beginning take us exactly?

Labour claims that this new beginning will reduce the burdens of the fuel surcharge and taxes. Quite a foggy start, with fewer taxes in the coffers how could the country pay its fuel bill? Perhaps we will be chasing a bowser of the scarce resource as we did for water in the Eighties.

The Opposition pledges this, that and the other, pulling any trick it can think of out of its hat. It is indeed sad if we an intelligent, educated, generally happy, public can be duped towards such a fuzzy New Beginning, which could really be the road to mediocrity.