The Xarabank debate being held on March 1 will not include PL leader joseph Muscat after PL pulled out of the debate when it’s request to shorted the debate time was rejected.

The party explained that due to the number of debates scheduled for the last week of the campaign, the Xarabank debate on March 1 should be of only one hour instead of two hours as planned.

The request was denied and PL pulled out of the debate.

PN reaction.
PN Secretary General Paul Borg Olivier held that PL leader Joseph Muscat is afraid of facing PN leader Lawrence Gonzi and that the PL do not want to air its views to the public.

In a press call following Labour’s pulling out of a Xarabank debate, PN Secretary General argued that the PL had confirmed their attendance then tried to impose conditions and backed out when these were not accepted. "Candidates owe it to the people to turn up," he said.

Paul Borg Olivier explained that Dr Gonzi will still attend Xarabank on March 1 continuing that, "through debates, the public are informed of a party’s electoral programme, their proposals and ideas. The people deserve a leader who can do this". He added that this is not the first time the PL have backed out of a debate, bringing up several incidents where the PL deputy leaders had failed to attend.

Asked whether the PN got the address information of Enemalta employees from the Electoral Register in order to send them letters, the PN Secretary General replied, "We got the information the same way the PL got theirs in order to send invites to the Rialto gathering".

PL's reply
Reacting to the press conference by PN Secretary General Paul Borg Olivier, the PL said that Dr Borg Olivier’s statement is false and is a distraction from a PN campaign that has not produced a single policy proposal in two weeks.

The PL held that party leader Joseph Muscat has committed to four debates during this campaign so far and will continue to determine his schedule with his campaign team.

It might have been more appropriate, at a time when 70% of the country was without power, for the governing party to be focusing on this rather than silly political games, the statement read.