Ministers told to prepare for November election

Labour ministers and parliamentary secretaries have been told by Castille to seriously reduce their working hours at their ministries, and start campaigning in preparation for a November election.

MaltaToday understands that ministers have been advised to set their sights on their constituents in what is likely to be a long hot summer campaign that will serve as a build-up to an early Budget, before firing the starting pistol for a short election campaign.

Secretariats have been thrown into campaign mode and been asked to focus their energies on customer care relations, with a November election very likely on the cards – contradicting the vocal statements by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, on more than one occasion, that he will complete his full five-year term and hold elections in March 2018.

Rumours of a November election spread like wildfire as soon as aides stationed inside some ministerial secretariats upped sticks and left their offices to start work inside the reactivated fourth floor at the Labour party headquarters at Mile End – now synonymous with the sleek ‘Malta Taghna Wkoll’ campaign that led Muscat to his landslide victory in 2013.

Strategy meetings and focus groups are in full swing, together with daily tracking of potential voting trends. The insider who spoke to MaltaToday said the mood is positive.

“Muscat is still open to a 2018 option but he gave the go-ahead for the party machinery to be reignited back in January, with the possibility of an immediate election after an early October budget.

“His advisers are pushing him to take up the November election option, now encouraged by strong trust ratings, and the party financing saga that dead-legged the PN,” the well-placed source said of the revelations that the db Group had bankrolled the salaries of the PN’s secretary general and CEO.

Crucially, Muscat’s high profile visibility throughout the Maltese presidency of the European Council, and a booming economy which in 2016 registered a surplus, has confirmed that the first practicable opportunity for an election – in November – should not be lost.

Economy minister Chris Cardona himself clearly hinted that Labour was getting ready to “switch on its machines in preparation for the election” after the end of the Presidency in June, in a speech two weeks ago in Gzira.

Labour is taking advantage of being better oiled than the financially crippled Nationalist Party, especially with its pre-electoral Budget this year promising to be the right prelude to an election campaign.

In the latest MaltaToday survey, while Labour was leading the PN by four points, Muscat was enjoying a trust lead of 7.1 points over Simon Busuttil, slightly up from 6.8 points in November.

An extrapolation of the survey, when undecided respondents and those intent on not voting are not taken into account, would put the PL at 51%, the PN at 45.1%, AD at 1.6% and the PD and the far-right Patriots at 0.9%.

Insiders said no new star candidates have yet been mooted, apart from some new faces such as lawyer Robert Abela, son of the former President George Abela.