Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/821520
WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT ELECTION SPECIAL €1.00 Newspaper post SEE PAGES 4 TO 7, EDITORIAL PAGE 13 TUESDAY • 9 MAY 2017 • ISSUE 522 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY ELECTIONS DAYS TO GO 25 Slow train coming Comparing the surveys Candidates speak their mind PAGE 4 PAGE 3 mind SEE PAGES 11, 12 Check out the latest news on our revamped desktop and mobile version of www.maltatoday.com.mt Costly promises unleashed by political parties THE two political parties went into overdrive yesterday, making a set of new proposals that would cost the tax payer millions but which according to the PL and PN would improve the quality of life for citizens. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the gov- ernment intended to offer free, supervised transport to students attending all schools. The proposal was intended to reduce the traffic load resulting from parents taking their children to school in the morning. A second transport-related proposal would see students, children, pensioners and people with a disability no longer paying for public transport. According to the Prime Minis- ter, this system had already been tested with 18-year-old students and would be extended to the mentioned groups. The measure, he said, would cost the government up to €3 million. And he added that the threshold for VAT exemptions would also be raised from €14,000 to €20,000 under a new Labour ad- ministration. "These businesses will be saving up to €1,000 a year, as well as a considerable amount of bureaucracy," Muscat said, who pointed out that the threshold had not been raised in some 18 years. And Simon Busuttil said that the PN was proposing extending the free childcare ser- vice to all parents, not only to those who choose to join the workforce, in a measure that would cost the government €53 million. "This proposal builds on a scheme intro- duced by the Labour government, but ex- tends it to everyone," he said. "We will also be increasing children's allowance from €450 to €550 yearly per child." In the case of parents on the minimum wage, the allowance will rise to €650. A new PN government will also seek the agreement of social partners to extend ma- ternity leave from 18 to 22 weeks and intro- duce four weeks of paternity leave. He added a new PN government would of- fer free school transport for church and pri- vate school students, as already was the case with government school students. Prime Minister and Labour leader Joseph Muscat made a bold pledge that a new Labour government will start work on the construction of a railway system. How do the MaltaToday and The Malta Independent survey compare Late night conference quell fears over PN's concerns over voting process A 10pm press conference held at the PL headquarters yester- day evening responded to PN Deputy Leader Beppe Fenech Adami's assertion on the secu- rity features of the new voting document. PL spokesman Mi- chael Falzon said Fenech Ada- mi's suggestion was incredible for being so vile. He said that in his 30 experience in the electoral process he had never witnessed such an episode. He said the electoral commission which consisted of four mem- bers appointed from the PL and four members from the PN had agreed unanimously that there were no issues. He said Fenech Adami's actions against the in- stitutions was unacceptable. Owen Bonnici speaking at the press conference said Fene- ch Adami knew that what he was saying was untrue. The Nationalist Party said earlier it will reach out to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to report how voting documents in Malta are miss- ing "basic security features". PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami said that tests carried out on voting docu- ments confirmed that the ink could "be wiped off ". PN leader Simon Busuttil, as well as Fenech Adami, blamed Prime Minister Joseph Mus- cat for the claims, with Bu- suttil warning his supporters that there could be "electoral fraud".