Interestingly, Abela is way more popular among young PL members, with 87.5% of 16-25 year olds and 52.5% of 26-35 year olds saying they prefer him over Fearne.

However, Fearne is favoured by 58.1% of 36-45 year olds, 69.7% of 46-55 year olds, 62.7% of 56-65 year olds and 67.5% of 65+ year olds.

The overwhelming support of the ‘grey vote’ will be crucial for Fearne, seeing as more than half of all PL members are older than than 55.

Fearne enjoys the support of 67.1% of males and 59.6% of women, figures that should comfort him somewhat seeing as men make up the majority of eligible PL members.

The deputy Prime Minister also outflanks Abela in all six regions, but particularly in the Northern Region, where he enjoys 70.5% of members’ support, the Northern Harbour Region (67%) and the Southern Harbour Region (66.3%).

Abela is most popular in the South Eastern region, where he is supported by 44% of eligible PL members, compared to Fearne’s 56%.

This survey indicates that a disparity exists among PL members and PL voters about who the next party leader and Prime Minister should be.

Another survey, conducted among 465 people who voted Labour in 2017, conceded that Abela was the preference of 57.3% of Labour voters, against 42.7% for Fearne.

Meanwhile, a survey published by MaltaToday last Sunday shows that the vast majority of PL voters would back either Fearne or Abela in a match-up against Opposition leader Adrian Delia. However, Fearne is also significantly trusted more than Delia by 14.8% of PN voters, while Abela is only trusted by 8.6 of them.