Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/398422
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 15 OctObEr 2014 7 News withdrawal method pease hunters and contemplated the postponement of the 2015 local elections to 2019. In all four cases Muscat showed an audacity rarely seen in the Mal- tese political scene. In all these Muscat seemed to see himself as a Dom Mintoff. But unlike Mintoff in all these cases Muscat avoided confronta- tion and letting the opposition cap- italise on these issues by turning them into its own battle cries. From day one Muscat also left space for manoeuvre by initiating a public consultation on the initial proposal to postpone both the 2015 and 2017 elections. This gave Mus- cat valuable time to test the waters. Moreover Muscat also banked on the opposition pressing on with the attack, ignoring the compromise proposed by the government. For example on the citizenship is- sue, Muscat managed to disorient the opposition completely follow- ing the agreement he reached with the European Union. By pressing on with legitimate criticism after the deal was reached, it was the opposition which ap- peared to be extremist and not working in the national interest. In the case of the latest U-turn, that on next year's local elections, Simon Busuttil has shown greater political tact. As soon as Muscat suggested that a compromise was in the offing, Busuttil upped the ante to give the impression that the government was withdrawing because of pres- sure by the opposition. Busuttil's unlikely comparison between Mus- cat's Malta and Communist China was clearly meant to up the ante. But following the government's partial U-turn Busuttil changed tack, welcoming the government's decision by attributing it to his party's principled opposition. In this sense Busuttil resisted the temptation to press on by opposing the postponement of the distant 2017 elections to 2019. Still awkwardly, despite his politi- cal retreat, Muscat has managed to emerge from the latest skirmish un- blemished. For Muscat was quite in synch with popular opinion, which has lost its appetite for annual elec- tions. This may in itself be a nega- tive omen, for electoral fatigue may well undermine democracy. A MaltaToday survey showed a relative majority in favour of post- poning elections. Yet Muscat real- ised that with the spring hunting referendum scheduled for next year, it would have been hard to explain why local elections were not being held in conjunction with the same referendum. In fact the same Mal- taToday survey showed 59% agree- ing with holding the referendum and local elections next year. The end result of this was that Muscat has managed to avoid local elections due in 2017, saving him- self from Lawrence Gonzi's predic- ament when he had to face a long electoral campaign stretching from local elections in 2012 to general elections in 2013. The casualty: Local government? With even the Greens agreeing to the postponement of the 2017 local elections to 2019 and the PN avoiding the risk of appearing too negative on this issue, the Mal- tese electoral calendar has been streamlined to make life easier for the party in office. From 2015 onwards local elec- tions will always be overshadowed by nationwide European elections, in which political parties show very little interest in local issues. Surely past local elections were often boring affairs with political leaders repeating the same message over and over again while visiting different localities. The risk now is that local elec- tions will be further relegated to an appendage of the MEP elections, which have already degenerated in- to a confirmation test for any newly elected government. The compromise proposed by the government ensures that incum- bent governments will not be facing any mid term tests except for one held one year after being elected or re-elected to power. Probably MEP elections will coin- cide with the government's honey- moon period. In this sense citizens will lose the chance to send a message to those in power through elections further down the life of the legislature. On its own this may reduce elec- toral pressures on governments by supporters bent on being rewarded but it could also encourage govern- ments to ignore voters in the time between elections. Lumping local elections into a single nation wide election, which does not coincide with either the MEP or the national election could be more conducive to a debate on local issues. Yet even in this case as happens in the rest of Europe, local elections will still be seen as a popularity test for governments and oppositions. Another possibility is that of hav- ing the 68 local elections inter- spersed through the entire five-year legislature in a way that each elec- tion will be primarily a local one. Reforms like the direct election of the mayor and granting councils the power to raise money through local taxes or levies may also go a long way in restoring interest in lo- cal elections. In fact the most interesting as- pect of the debate on the postpone- ment of local elections, was the lack of debate on the impact of election dates on local government. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat at the Marsa power station last April PHOTO BY Ray attaRd