Live Blog: Election Monitoring – Day 8

The eighth day of the election campaign gets under way on Monday, with both parties due to hold events to detail new pledges.

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No election for Franco Debono

9:35 a.m. The lawyer and former PN deputy Franco Debono has announced that he will not participate in the legislative elections.

Writing on Facebook, Debono said that while he didn’t rule out taking a more active role in politics, he wouldn’t be throwing his hat in the ring.

Last week, PN leader Bernard Grech told reporters he wouldn’t rule out seeing Debono on the party ticket.

On Monday morning, Debono said that after thinking about the possibility of running for office, he had decided not to participate in this one.

“I don’t think now is the right time,” Debono wrote.

Debono had been a Nationalist MP during the 2008-2013 legislature, but ended that term after a series of clashes with then-party leader Lawrence Gonzi and former interior minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, on the constitutional and judicial reforms he was proposing.

One day after the polls

8:40 am Monday’s events take place the day after three political polls have confirmed one thing: Labor should win by a landslide, but what will be the gap between the two main parties?

Malta todaythe Labor survey predicted a Labor victory of 23,000 votes, the it-Torca survey predicted a gap of 41,000 and the Times of Malta above 44,000.

Hello

8:30 am On Sunday, Labor leader Robert Abela and Nationalist leader Bernard Grech closed the first week of the campaign by addressing separate rallies.

The PN will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. and close the day with a rally in Paola.

Meanwhile, the PL will hold a press conference addressed by Abela to Cospicua at 10 a.m. Today’s Labor headline event is an interview with Abela in Birkirkara tonight.

The local political scene, however, is overshadowed by developments in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The leaders of the two countries are expected to have talks on the border with neighboring Belarus.