Prime Minister Robert Abela said Thursday that it is up to the voters to show what they think of the judiciary, adding that he will not report the magistrate that he has accused of deliberately timing the conclusion of an inquiry with the election campaign.

Abela has frequently claimed that the conclusion of the Vitals inquiry so close to the election was not coincidental.

Whoever believes that a member of the judiciary has committed a wrongdoing can report them to the Commission for the Administration of Justice.

But Abela said he has no intention to report Magistrate Gabriella Vella for what the PM described as “perfect timing” for the conclusion of the inquiry, four and a half years after it started.

Speaking to journalists, he said he will comment on whether he thinks the magistrate was biased in her conclusions once the inquiry is made public.

He said that for the time being all he could comment about was the timeline “which was surely not a simple coincidence”.

“People can reach their own conclusions on whether this was intentional or not. The Commission is not the only body that scrutinises the judiciary. People will take their decision on June 8,” he said.

He said the people must send a message that they will not tolerate these manoeuvres by what he described as the establishment which, when asked, he said was made up of different people and institutions who were working behind the scenes in an attempt to dictate what decisions need to be taken.

He said it was thought that this was going to be an election like any other but it has been given a different meanitd because the establishment has intervened.

“If there’s any danger to our democracy, it was created by this clique of people and their manoeuvres. People must send a strong signal and that is why our slogan is about giving strength to the Maltese (Is-Saħħa lill-Maltin),” he said.

He said he had no doubt that the timeline chosen was to influence the election campaign and its result. “This is very dangerous and I expected much better,” he said.

Abela was speaking at the end of a press conference during which the nine Labour Party candidates for the EP elections were officially presented.