The prime minister said this evening that the Opposition leader Simon Busuttil's refusal to accept that Saturday's election was a contest between the two of them exposed his shallowness.

He said that while at the beginning of the electoral campaign Dr Busuttil called on people to give him a yellow card, he was now refusing to play the game.

"First he told people to give me a yellow card and now that I am in the pitch waiting for him and he doesn't want to play. This exposes his shallowness when he wants people to judge others but not him," he told supporters in Rabat.

He also questioned why Dr Busuttil was in politics if he did not want to be judged.

The basic difference between the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party was that while one understood the people's concerns, the other laughed at measures such as the reduction in utility tariffs which would leave money in the people's pockets, Dr Muscat said.

He said he was proud that the measures the government had already introduced was already giving families and pensioners a breather.

Dr Muscat criticised the Opposition's position on civil unions. The  Opposition was saying that two people of the same sex did not have the right to have a family and have their own children, he said. "Even when I am told that there are 80 per cent of people against, I am proud that there are no class differences between people," he said.

Acknowledging that the government had committed mistakes and was prepared to admit it, he said his government had the will to bring about change.