Nationalist Party leadership hopeful Chris Said yesterday said he would stop the power of incumbency during electoral campaigns.

Dr Said was reacting to an article in yesterday’s Times of Malta which said half of the members of the Armed Forces of Malta were promoted during June’s electoral campaign. “Labour milked its power of incumbency to the full. We must put a stop to this. As a new leader of the Nationalist Party, I intend to do this through concrete actions,” he told The Sunday Times of Malta.

“Through parliamentary questions and by other means, I shall have a clear idea of how and where power of incumbency was used. Through constitutional channels, the Public Service Commission, the Office of the Auditor General and the Office of the Ombudsman I will ask them to investigate and report.

“In case of corrupt practices, I will request the police, or preferably an inquiring magistrate, to investigate. I will present a Private Member’s Bill for a moratorium during election campaigns on promotions and new jobs as part of good practice, which used to happen under successive PN adminstrations and the Labour 1996 adminstration.”