Local Council elections

The campaign for these local councils elections is a bit odd. Coming on the heels of Lawrence Gonzi's hard fought confirmation as leader of the PN, the campaign felt anti-climatic. However certain useful trends did emerge.

1 - PL campaign is much more polished than the PN campaign. Through it all one couldn't help getting the feeling that PN's campaign was way below their normal standards. The PL's campaign whilst not the best is certainly a marked improvement on previous efforts.
2 - The campaign is not really about local councils. Just like the Spanish civil war before the Second world war, these local council elections give us a feeling of being a dressed rehersal for the main event.
3 - the result of these elections will probably affect the date of the general elections. One could look at the these elections as government sponsored opinion poll. A very good showing in this round of elections would probably make the PN consider holding early elections.
4 - Voter turnout will continue to fall. Quite simply people are fed up with politics. One just simply cannot go away from it. Whilst this is something good for political junkies like myself, most people don't care that much. If parties want participation to increase voter participation, they have to rethink their strategy particularly regarding social media. Transforming your timeline into a live news feed for your party is probably not the best way to convince people to go out and vote. On the contrary it will probably backfire.