Two-Thirds Of Malta Believe There Is No Opposition With Survey Showing Damning Indictment Of Adrian Delia’s Leadership
Two-thirds of Malta believe that there is no Opposition in the country, with an independent survey showing that 66% of respondents were “not convinced at all” that the Nationalist Party offered a solid opposition to the Labour Party.
Conversely, just 5% of respondents said they were “totally convinced” that the PN could challenge.
The survey was conducted by BREIN over 16th and 21st December using a mix of telephone and online responses. Over 3,000 responses were received, out of which a sample of 1,027 responses was generated.
For each question, respondents were given options between 1 to 5, with 1 meaning that they are not convinced at all, 3 that they are unsure and 5 that they are totally convinced.
The results spell worrying signs for the struggling party, with the PN seemingly unable to make up any significant ground despite the current political crisis and the endless allegations of corruption plaguing the current government.
Even more damning is the public’s opinion about PN Leader Adrian Delia, with 63.6% saying they are not convinced at all of his credibility as an aspiring Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, 60% said that they believed Delia should not remain the party’s leader.
Despite surviving a confidence vote following an abysmal performance with the MEP and local council elections, it seems that Delia’s overwhelming lack of popularity is being reflected in the survey.
When it comes to Delia’s replacement, MEP Roberta Metsola is leading the pack, even beating out the current leader in people’s first preference choice for party leader.
While Delia got support from 11.8% of the survey, Metsola garnered 18%.
Other contenders include Claudio Grech (7.4%). However, it seems that wholesale change is also desired, with 9.5% voting for other candidates, just as figures like Joe Giglio and Bernard Grech begin to gather steam in the political forum.
What still works in the PN’s favour is the growing irrelevance of Malta’s third parties, who have failed to make any strides into mainstream politics.
Marlene Farrugia and Godfrey Farrugia seemed to make some headway in 2017 when a coalition agreement with the PN saw them gain two parliamentary seats for the Democratic Party.
However, in under two years, both have left the party, with the PD now turning to Alternattiva Demokratika to save their political future.
In fact, the survey shows that only 65.2% believe there is another party besides the Labour Party that is capable of running the country.
While the figure in no way reflects well on the PN, it is also a damning indictment of the inability of third parties to attract a sizable voting base.
Seeking to collect responses from a sample that is optimally representative of the population of the Maltese Islands, a stratified sample was devised on the counts of individuals based on the latest national statistics published periodically by the National Statistics Office (NSO). The final sample of 1027 responses is estimated to represent the population in terms of gender, age and location distribution exceeding a 95% confidence interval and an accuracy level of 97%.
What do you think of this survey’s results?
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