Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1520224
ALMOST exactly 15 years ago – immediately after Malta's sec- ond-ever European Parliamen- tary elections – I wrote an article in this newspaper which began: "Never mind the Labour Party's four seats and the PN's 35,000 vote drubbing. Once the dust settles from this election, Malta will slowly have to take stock of the fact that the real winner was none other than the radical, rac- ist right." It was a reference to the ex- traordinary achievement of only one candidate: Norman Low- ell, who somehow managed to garner 3,600 first-count votes – easily surpassing all other inde- pendent contestants in the same election – despite all the obsta- cles that had earlier been stacked against him. These included the fact that Lowell had contested while still serving a suspended sentence for 'incitement to racial hatred'; he had been denied space on both PBS, and also (by order of the Broadcasting Authority) on pri- vate stations such as Smash TV; not to mention that Lowell him- self hardly even bothered cam- paigning at all, in the weeks and months preceding the vote. As I put it in that article, 15 years ago: "apart from the occa- sional YouTube video clip, his entire campaign expenditure ap- pears to have been limited to a single packet of balloons." And yet, Lowell went on to pip the likes of Azzjoni Nazzjonali's Josie Muscat, the Alpha Liberal Democratic Party, Cecil Herbert Jone's 'KUL Europa', and (per- haps unsurprisingly) Nazzarenu Bonnici's Tal-Ajkla party, to place fourth overall after PL, PN and Alternattiva Demokratika. It was a record he would sub- stantially improve upon in 2014 – when he doubled his tally to 6,761 – and then again in 2019, with 8,238 votes (and on both occasions, without even trying too hard). This brings us to the ongo- ing 2024 campaign, and… what do you know? Norman Lowell appears well on course to re- peat the same achievement, for the third consecutive time. On March 17, The Times published a survey suggesting that Lowell would attract 2.5% of the na- tional vote – i.e., around 9,000 – which works out as more than double the tally of his closest rival in the 'independent/third party' category (Arnold Cassola, who only registered 1.2%). More recently, a 28 April sur- vey by IDEA Group predicted that Lowell would garner a stag- gering 4.3% of FIRST-COUNT votes (and if I emphasise 'first- count' so much, it's because there are 39 counts in this elec- tion; and with around 16,000 already in the bag, Lowell would stand a very real chance of win- ning a seat in the European Par- liament, through 'vote-inher- itance'). Oh, and it's worth pointing out that in all three prior EP elec- tions, surveys had failed to pick up on the full extent of his popu- larity. So if this trend persists to- day: IDEA's prediction of '4.3%' might fall far short of Lowell's actual performance, on June 8… Naturally, it remains to be seen whether any of these predictions will materialise; but one thing is already painstakingly clear. Love him or hate him, Lowell has proven to be by far the most successful 'non-mainstream' politician Malta has ever seen… and all indications, at present, are that his popularity will only keep growing for the foreseeable future. This raises a small question that I think we ought to start seriously asking ourselves, for a change. Why is this even hap- pening? And please note: I don't mean, 'why are so many voters attracted to a man whose politics make even Adolf Hitler look like a 'liberal leftie'?' (Let's face it: we all know that a sizeable chunk of Malta's electorate would be just as willing to vote for Hitler him- self, given half a chance…) No, I mean: 'why is Norman Lowell still so consistently pop- ular, among Maltese voters… when the man himself hasn't ac- tually been seen at all - or even heard of, quite frankly – for al- most all of the past five years?' Think about it for a sec: when's the last time any of you heard an- ything that Norman Lowell said, which wasn't lifted from one of the YouTube videos that orig- inally made him famous, more than 20 years ago? When's the last time he addressed a meeting in public? Or appeared on TV, for that matter? Reason I ask is that – after a quick online search this morn- ing – I was only capable of find- ing one, single solitary instance where Norman Lowell actually made an appearance in public, since 2019. It was in November 2023, when he was filmed (by an audience member) delivering an impromptu speech 'from behind a bar'. And that doesn't even count as a campaign effort, because: a) it was almost two years before the campaign started, and; b) it wasn't even intended to be made public, in the first place. In terms of actual campaign- ing, however – and everything we take that word to mean: leaflets, flyers, corner-meetings, YouTube clips; even buying the occasional packet of balloons, if it comes it – there has, so far, been… nothing whatsoever. Or to be more precise: noth- ing that has gravitated into my field of vision. To be fair, Low- ell might be extremely active on social-media platforms I know nothing about. But then again: what use is any of that, if those platforms are just as invisible to anybody who's not already a committed Norman Lowell vot- er? (To put that another way: how can he 'reach out' to the wider community – including a whole new generation of voters – if his message is only accessi- ble on 'underground' media?) Yet somehow, he is managing to do precisely that. He has con- sistently improved upon his past electoral performances… which maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 MAY 2024 10 OPINION How to win an election, without even bothering to campaign Raphael Vassallo