Labour leader Alfred Sant said yesterday his party was not promising miracles but a strategy that recognised challenges, tackled priorities and rooted out corruption.
Looking slimmer after undergoing major surgery, Dr Sant's voice never faltered as he roused the crowd to mention ministers who they believed were corrupt.
Playing a pun on the Nationalist Party's slogan, Dr Sant joked that the motto Together Corruption Is Possible would be more fitting for the government who favoured its own cliques.
"Why are they portraying (Prime Minister Lawrence) Gonzi on his own on the billboards? Where are the ministers? Why are they not showing (Resources Minister) Ninu Zammit or (Roads Minister Jesmond) Mugliett," he asked, as the crowd cheered and shouted out names to add to the list.
Dr Sant said he had met PN supporters who believed that if they gave Dr Gonzi another chance he would change the Cabinet. However, such a change should have come three years ago.
Obviously, he said, the present ministers were not happy with being sidelined and, to counteract this, Mr Zammit had issued a special edition of his ministry's On Site magazine featuring himself with Dr Gonzi on the cover.
"Don't laugh... This publication is funded by taxpayers' money... It reminds me of Vogue or Cosmopolitan," he said, allowing himself a smile, as he addressed the crowd gathered under a tent in Ponsonby Street, G?ira.
Dr Sant accused the government of stooping to a propaganda built on fabrications.
"The government's adage should be: A lie a day keeps defeat at bay. One of these lies is that Labour would reduce social services.
"On the contrary, we are going to strengthen and increase these services to improve people's quality of life," he said, adding that in the education sector the plan was to give children back their childhood.
Dr Sant said the most important area of education was at a primary level and Labour would follow successful British and Scandinavian models to improve the curriculum and introduce a reception class (between kindergarten and primary school) that will widen children's opportunities and enhance their development.
Since his return to the fold after his operation he had felt the party's momentum increasing and, once in office, Labour would straighten out what has been twisted in the past years of a Nationalist Administration, Dr Sant said.
A Labour Party in government will work to ensure the country was run in an efficient and transparent way, bureaucracy would be eradicated and businesses and employment given a new lease of life.
"People with new ideas will be pushed forward not trampled on as has happened in the past when only the government's friends of friends were favoured. We won't leave anyone behind. Who's not against us is with us," he said.
"We will bring about a tranquil change that the people have been yearning for, built on our plan for a new beginning," as the crowd chanted "Fredu, Fredu".
Unfurling new red and white flags, with the words Choose Labour emblazoned on them, the crowd gave their leader a standing ovation as the meeting ended with party's campaign song, The Only Way Is Up... Labour - a retouched version of Yazz's 1980s hit.
Reacting to Dr Sant's speech, the PN said that, with its reception class proposal, the MLP wanted to continue experimenting with education and wanted children to repeat a year unnecessarily.
Dr Sant had led a government that reduced stipends, despite promising to retain the stipend system as it was.
While the PN government was investing in ICT, Dr Sant described the ICT courses as amateurish.