Labour’s political dominance over the Nationalist Party has increased since the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, with a new survey now putting it 75,000 votes ahead of the opposition party.

The survey, published by the General Workers’ Union Sunday newspaper It-Torċa, shows a massive 29% gap between the two parties – with 51.4% of respondents saying they plan to vote for PL and only 22.3% saying they plan to vote for PN.

A significant 14% of respondents said they plan to abstain from voting, while 9.1% either said they are undecided or refused to disclose their voting intentions, and the remaining 3.2% said they plan to vote for one of Malta’s smaller parties.

Like the union which owns it, It-Torċa is strongly affiliated with the Labour Party. However, it was the only newspaper which had correctly predicted the results of the general election in June – which saw Labour defeat the PN by some 36,000 votes. 

The survey will come as a blow to PN leader Adrian Delia, who has struggled to win the trust of his parliamentary group since soaring to power in September. It indicates the PN has actually lost traction amongst voters since the last survey, published by MaltaToday last month, put the party at 70,000 votes behind Labour.

“It is not about numbers; it is about resolve and hard work,” Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said in a tweet. “People see through everything and everyone and make their choices. Proud to serve.”

A snippet from today’s survey in the Sunday Times of Malta

There was more bad news for Delia in a trust barometer published by the Sunday Times of Malta. Asked to rate the two leaders on a scale of 1 to 10, Joseph Muscat was given a rating of 7.5 while Adrian Delia could only muster a measly 3.4. 

According to the Times survey, a whopping 72% of respondents said they trust the government and the Armed Forces, while 69% said they trust the police force and 56% said they trust Parliament.

The media and the law courts both scored poorly though – with only 51% of respondents saying they trust those two institutions. 

Meanwhile, 53.3% of people said they are satisfied the government treats everyone equally, but only 38.4% said the law is respected in Malta. 

Is there any way Adrian Delia can turn the numbers around in his favour? 

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Tim Diacono

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]