In Malta we have three main elections, or types of ballot paper, and three main styles of voting, at least to date. We have the general election where we mostly vote as we have always done, and then grumble and rue the day we did. The number of real floaters is very small in most European states and Malta is no exception. We also vote presidentially in general elections, for the leader, more than for the party, and this was clearest last year when the Nationalist leader won more than the PN, hence the huge anti-government sentiment very soon after. We have local elections where we either don't bother at all or vote in protest at something central government is doing to annoy us, and/or to praise or criticise the individual performance of the local council concerned.

And we now have EU elections where we can really vote as a nation, and choose the candidates, as much as the parties, we prefer.

We have only had one EU election so far but I think, on the whole, we still felt freer than we normally do come election time and voted for the actual candidates we preferred as much as for parties. People like Louis Grech are liked by PN voters too, who tend to go for the apparently tough, intelligent and not too abrasive male leaders, probably best personified in the PN by characters like John Dalli. European elections are also interesting in my view because a better class of candidiate is presented than for the local and even for the general election. The fact that we vote nationally also gives these elections a very special unifying feel, even though many are now saying they won't vote.

However, just because we have better candidates in the European elections does not mean we necessarily choose them. In the last European elections, for example, the PN voters did not choose the best candidates offered by the PN. The best two were clearly Simon Busuttil and Joanna Drake but perhaps the more conservative mindset of PN voters, and perhaps PN support itself, meant another result and the rest, as they say, is history.

However I don't remember the Labour Party trying to diminish Dr Drake with name calling and by calling her wonder woman, and I hope this stops though I suspect nothing will stop Marlene Mizzi's breezy, intelligent optimism anyway. I for one do hope this time that an intelligent and very experienced woman like Ms Mizzi will make it to the European Parliament.

Very interestingly though, the PL voters did on the whole choose their best three candidates. Now whether that is because the voters were enlightened or were guided differently is difficult to prove, but this was in a sense partly what gave the PL a majority, as well as the AD its challenge from Arnold Cassola, which the PN are trying to deflect by having imported Alan Deidun. However, is the environment going to turn out to be a big vote swinger this time?

The only way for things to change is for the main two parties to take the environment in all its forms very seriously indeed.

However this time the environment, or trees or even the lack of them, does not really have the populist appeal that an issue like immigration does.

In fact, according to The Times online poll, the main issue for the electoral campaign is immigration. With the whole world facing a credit crunch you would think it would be the economy, but more than half of the voters of this poll at the time of writing put immigration on top, so this may well be one of the battlegrounds and may deflect slightly from our tendency so far to choose the best candidates in elections for the European Parliament, though I really hope not.

Summer is on its way and immigration is uppermost in voters' minds, especially every time a boatload of human beings arrives to remind people of their concerns, which are being unscrupulously fanned by some.

Malta received terrible international press at the time the immigrants were left hanging on to tuna pens and rightly so, but this time many in Europe are baffled by the Italians' refusal to take in immigrants when they were in fact nearer their port of Lampedusa. If immigration continues to be the top issue for voters, the candidates elected this time will have an uphill task lobbying for more support for Malta in this area.

And of course Malta also needs to realise that this immigration issue is a big issue all over Europe too. Because of the problems in the world economy, it is getting worse by the day, and even normally liberal regimes are having to react to populist anger which is often misdirected against immigration (one exception is the UK where it is white bankers and MPs who abuse expenses who are public enemy number one). This phenomenon needs to be properly understood and countered.

It's a very delicate issue and we will need the best and the brightest to encourage the EU to give us the support we need, while at the same time educating us to accept that we will have to play our part too. Who will get three candidates this time, and will the tree or green issue have any bearing on the result, while immigration is apparently uppermost in people's minds?

There are no easy answers here, whatever the extreme right wingers tell you. Vote with your heads not your hearts, and Malta should have the right candidates who will be heard and respected in the European Parliament.

m_micallef@sky.com