Meanwhile, polled voters still preferred Labour’s vision for Gozo, with PL edging out ahead with just 1%, an interesting statistic considering the expected swing in voting towards the PN.

When asked whether, in general, their standard of living is improving or deteriorating, nearly half of all respondents (48.5%) actually said it’s remained the same, with only 22.8% saying it’s actually getting worse.

At a cursory glance, all of these responses might indicate that, while a political change for Gozo could be on the horizon, it doesn’t seem to be particularly down to one glaring reason, but more a perceived need for a party-level shift in governance.

Perhaps telling towards, third parties, long touted by many as a near-mythical required shake-up in Malta’s political sphere, saw their vote share increase by over 2,015 votes, marking a surge that’s more than four times bigger than PN’s 409-vote gain and more than half as big as Labour’s 3,770-vote loss. Still leading the way in alternative parties, ADPD was found to command 5.8% votes, with the party found to secure some 4.5% during a nationwide poll back in September.

Today’s survey marks a similar trend to Malta Today’s September 2024 nationwide survey (its first since June’s MEP elections), which showed PN leading Labour by 12,000 votes but Bernard Grech having a dismal trust rating of 26.6% compared to Abela’s 42.6%.

Reacting to the survey’s findings moments after it was published this morning, Gozitan PN MP Alex Borg said the results showed “what my friends and I feel in the streets and the homes we visit”.

“Gozitans are ready and willing for a new spring,” Borg continued. “They want solutions, not squabbles. They don’t want anyone to be left behind and for only the few chosen ones to thrive. That Gozo does not solely remain important until the election.”

“From the survey, I don’t see whether the blue is ahead of the red,” the young MP continued. “I only see that, from June onwards, we continued confirming that we will continue convincing people with our work. It would be amiss that we don’t continue walking down this road that we started. We’re of the people. There isn’t time or place for anything else. There aren’t Labourites or Nationalists.”

“Obtaining a majority does not mean power, but responsibility and trust to do good,” Borg finished. “We are all Maltese brothers, and together, we know there’s much better than this. So with the greatest humility and good will, let’s keep on working friends!”

This morning’s survey results arrive at a critical juncture for the islands, with this week seeing leaked proposals reveal plans to split key towns and districts ahead of the 2027 general election.

While Birkirkara, Marsaskala, Żebbuġ and Naxxar appear to be the biggest potential hits in these major boundary changes, every vote coming in from everywhere obviously counts, and Malta’s Single Transferrable Vote (STV) system means that electoral outcomes hinge on seat distribution rather than the national vote share. Read our analysis on all that here.

What do you make of this latest survey result? Do you think PN has what it takes to win the next election?