Misco National Opinion Poll 2022: The Main Findings And Conclusions
A new national opinion poll carried out by Misco and released by Lovin Malta has highlighted which issues are most concerning to the general public and how Maltese citizens feel about the current political leaders and their party’s overall impact on our everyday lives.
The main findings and conclusions presented reflect a growing concern on a number of key issues such as overdevelopment, traffic and cost of living across various age groups.
Here’s a detailed look at the key findings and conclusions by Misco:
- There is a high level of disengagement with political parties and politicians
- Both parties appear to be losing votes
- An increasing percentage of the population appears to be unhappy with the situation in Malta
- The key national issues are traffic, cost of living and the environment
- The key personal issues are cost of living and traffic
1. General analysis of main concerns
Respondents were asked to state the two most important issues, which, in their opinion, the country is facing at the moment.
40% of respondents mentioned traffic and the lack of traffic rules enforcement and 28% mentioned the cost of living. 16% mentioned other issues related to the economy.
The environment features highly in respondents’ concerns as 20% mentioned overdevelopment. 12% mentioned the environment and 3% mentioned pollution. Corruption was mentioned by 18% of respondents. 16% of respondents mentioned overpopulation while 8% mentioned immigration.
Traffic decreases in importance as one moves up the age scale and is of greater concern among females and persons with lower incomes.
Respondents were asked which party would be best at dealing with these problems – 28% mentioned the Labour party and 16% mentioned the Nationalist Party.
49% stated that neither is suited to deal with these problems.
Respondents were also asked to mention the two main issues they are facing personally. 57% mentioned the cost of living and financial issues while 38% mentioned traffic.
Environment-related aspects were mentioned by 15% of respondents, while 13% mentioned other aspects related to the economy such as low incomes and low pensions.
The cost of living issue dominates as the leading personal issue across all demographic segments.
25% of respondents said the Labour Party is best at dealing with these personal issues while 17% said they preferred the Nationalist Party. Significantly, 54% stated neither party is suited to deal with these problems.
The notably large amount of respondents who said that neither party is suited to resolve key national problems or personal problems is an indication of a newly-forming detachment from the political parties.
2. The current situation in Malta
Respondents were asked to describe the way they judge the Maltese economy.
52% described it as very good or good and 48% described it as not so good or not good at all. 8% described it as very good, while 10% described it as not good at all.
Persons aged under 35 years and females are more likely to judge the economic situation in Malta negatively.
Previously published data shows that at the beginning of this year, 60% of the population stated that the economic situation in Malta was very good or good, and 37% judged it to be bad or very bad. In November 2020, 74% judged the economic situation to be very good or good.
22% of respondents said that in general, things in Malta are going in the right direction. 47% stated that they are going in the wrong direction, while 31% stated that they are neither going in the right nor in the wrong direction.
Again, persons under the age of 35 years and females are the most critical of the situation.
Previously published data shows that at the beginning of this year, 44% of the population stated things were moving in the right direction. In another published survey held in 2018, 63% of the population stated that things in Malta were moving in the wrong direction.
This data is indicative of unhappiness with the current situation in Malta.
3. Party Leaders
Respondents were asked to rate the leaders of the two main parties from 1 to 10, with ten being the highest.
It is worth noting that on such a scale the average score would be 5.5. Robert Abela was given a rating of 5.1 while Bernard Grech was given a rating of 3.1. This is an indication of disenchantment with politicians.
45% of respondents gave a rating to Robert Abela of six or more out of ten, while 16% gave a rating to Bernard Grech of six or more out of ten.
It is to be noted that these ratings are significantly below the ratings given to party leaders in previous polls.
4. Voting Intentions
36% of respondents stated they would not vote if an election were held tomorrow. This indicates the current disenchantment with politics, which emerges from this survey.
29% of respondents stated they would vote for the Labour Party and 22% stated they would vote for the Nationalist Party. 7% stated that they would vote for ADPD. 3% mentioned other parties, while 4% of respondents refused to express a voting intention.
The level of voter retention is identical for both parties, at 60%.
The level of those switching parties since the last election is nearly the same for both parties, with a slight advantage for the Nationalist Party. However, the Nationalist Party loses more significantly to ADPD than the Labour Party.
41% of respondents said their parents’ political inclination was towards the Labour Party, while 34% said it was towards the Nationalist Party.
49% of respondents whose parents’ political inclination is towards the Labour Party, will vote PL. The percentage for the PN is the same. 5% of PN voters said that their parents’ political inclination is towards the Labour Party while 9% of PL voters said that their parents’ political inclination is towards the Nationalist Party.
15% of respondents who voted in the last general election regret the way they voted. This is at a level similar to previous opinion polls. 77% of this group said they would not vote if an election were to be held tomorrow.
2% of those who regret the way they voted said that they would vote for the PL while 7% said that they would vote for the PN and another 7% said that they would vote for APDP.
Only 5% who did not vote in the last general election regret the fact that they have not voted.
This survey was conducted among a random sample of 457 respondents between the 9th March and 11th March. Interviews were conducted on the telephone by trained interviewers under the direct supervision of MISCO coordinators. Respondents were selected using the random digit dialling method.
A total of 574 persons were contacted to achieve a sample of 457 respondents. A sample of 457 provides a margin of error within ±4.7%. However when one applies the weighting efficiency resulting from the weighting of the data by age, gender and region, the margin of error increases to ±5.4%. The weighting efficiency is the amount of skewing that had to be done to align the sample to the actual population data.
The full report will be released soon.
What do you make of these findings?