Election playbook: Is this what the rest of the election campaign is going to look like?

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A week is a long time in politics, and last week felt like five years – here’s a short run-down of week one of the election campaign 

Candidates’ line-up confirmed: There are officially 39 candidates that will feature on the ballot sheet on 8 June, and it’s looking to be the longest-ever voting list. Labour have nine candidates, and the Nationalist Party has eight. But some eyes are on the third parties and independent candidates amid growing political apathy. For some concise information on each candidate, go here. 

A long time coming: The conclusion of the Vitals inquiry was a matter of time, but now it’s become a matter of timing. Abela and his Labour election candidates have adopted a position of scepticism around the timing, down to the last hour, of the inquiry’s conclusion. The Nationalist Party simply tells them to let the institutions work. Joseph Muscat told the Police Commissioner he is ready for questioning to prove his innocence, and Chris Fearne told the Labour parliamentary group he is ready to resign if he is mentioned in the inquiry.   

The Establishment™: Abela keeps insisting that ‘members of the Establishment’ are working against him and the Labour government. He gave a poetic description of the elusive Establishment: “[It] works in silence… It acts behind the scenes… has many tentacles in many institutions”. The phrasing that sounds familiar, no? Here me out: “The Establishment… she don’t care what do the rabbit…. She don’t care what do the turtle…The Establishment she stay relax, and when need she act.” 

Mind the gap: The latest MaltaToday survey, carried out before the Vitals inquiry revelations, indicates the gap stands at 17,100 votes in the PL’s favour. Labour enjoys an absolute majority of votes but the lead has narrowed since March. However, this doesn’t mean the PN has gained much – its vote share increased by only 1.6 points. The third parties and independents collectively gained 0.5 percentage points over two months.