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10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 3 FEBRUARY 2019 NEWS MALTATODAY SURVEY MaltaToday Survey and Trust Barometer, 3 February 2019 Between Adrian Delia and Joseph Muscat who do you trust most? Joseph Muscat Adrian Delia Neither Don't know 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 54.8% 20.4% 20.0% 4.9% February 2019 pp change Dec 2018 Trust barometer among different categories of voters All PL PN Did not vote 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 54.8% 20.4% 20.0% 96.2% 9.3% 47.4% 9.3% 34.0% 46.5% 5.9% 42.6% Joseph Muscat Adrian Delia Neither Don't Know Trust barometer among different groups ALL Male Female 18-35 36-50 51-65 65+ Primary Secondary Post-Sec Tertiary Gozo Northern Northern Harbour South Eastern Southern Harbour Western 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 54.8% 20.4% 20.0% 50.6% 25.1% 19.3% 60.3% 14.1% 20.8% 54.2% 19.5% 25.5% 57.2% 11.0% 9.8% 22.0% 54.3% 24.7% 15.1% 53.5% 27.0% 16.6% 58.1% 26.0% 12.8% 64.4% 11.2% 20.9% 44.8% 27.8% 22.5% 42.9% 28.6% 25.7% 68.4% 26.9% 55.1% 20.6% 18.3% 44.7% 27.2% 24.3% 58.8% 15.3% 22.9% 67.1% 11.7% 6.1% 15.0% 51.3% 31.1% 6.8% 10.8% Joseph Muscat Adrian Delia Neither Don't Know For which political party will you vote for if a general election is held tomorrow? PL 42.0% -5.3pp Delia falls flat in Gozo as unassailable Muscat hits new trust record KURT SANSONE JOSEPH Muscat continues to enjoy unparalleled trust among voters with the latest MaltaToday survey giving him a record rating of 54.8%. This is the Prime Minister's highest ever trust rating, surpassing even the post-Budget November result. Muscat starts the year 34 points ahead of Opposition leader Adrian De- lia, who experienced a dip in his trust rating, and now stands at 20.4%. Women flock to Muscat Muscat enjoys the trust of an abso- lute majority of men, women and peo- ple of all ages. He is hugely popular among women, obtaining a trust rating of 60.3%, as opposed to 50.6% of men. The numbers show that Muscat con- tinues to be the Labour Party's biggest asset. Nothing thrown at the Prime Minister since the 2017 general elec- tion has managed to damage him. His consistently high trust rating suggests that any strategy by the Opposition to directly target him is bound to fail. Muscat trumps Delia across all re- gions, with significant distance sepa- rating them in Gozo, the Southern Harbour region and the South East. In Gozo, a formerly PN hotbed, Mus- cat enjoys a trust rating of 68.4%. In the Southern Harbour and South East- ern regions – traditionally bastions of the PL – Muscat scores 67.1% and 58.8% respectively. The Northern Harbour region is the only one where Muscat does not score an absolute majority but with 44.7%, he is still comfortably ahead of Delia, who scores 27.2%. The PL leader is trusted by 96.2% of those who voted for his party in the last general election, with a mere 0.3% of Labour voters saying they now trust Delia. Muscat's success story has its flipside in Delia's numbers. Delia's progress stymied The survey was the first to be held in the aftermath of accusations of do- mestic violence made against Delia by his wife. The Nationalist Party leader denied the allegations but had to dedi- cate a lot of energy at the start of the year to ward off a rebellion by some of his MPs, who wanted him to resign. The turmoil appears to have dam- aged Delia and stymied the progress registered in the last survey held at the start of December. His trust rating has dropped by more than four points since then. The Opposition leader appears un- able to motivate voters. Only 14.1% of women and a quarter of men trust him, while his strongest trust rating by age group is among the elderly. Delia receives the trust of 27% of those aged 65 and over but plummets to just 11% among those aged 36 to 50. Gozo debacle But in no other place than Gozo are Delia's woes more pronounced. None of the respondents from Gozo indi- cated Delia when asked whom they trusted between the two main political leaders. This does not mean that nobody in Gozo trusts Delia but the numbers may be statistically insignificant to be captured by a survey. More than a quarter of Gozitans trust no one. Delia's disastrous result in Gozo sug- gests that he is hugely disconnected from the Gozitan electorate. His per- sonal troubles may not have helped him either in a more conservative is- land. But the PN leader also enjoys dismal trust ratings in the South Eastern and Southern Harbour regions, obtaining 15.3% and 11.7% respectively. His strongest showing is in the West- ern region, scoring a trust rating of 31.1%. Back to square one Delia manages to secure the trust of 47.4% of those who voted PN in the last general election, a drop of 13 points from the December survey. It appears that Delia's progress among PN voters at the end of last year has been reversed. The number of 2017 PN voters who trust no one registered a slight uptick to 34%, while 9.3% are unsure who to trust. Between Joseph Muscat and Adrian Delia, whom do you trust? Trust barometer Trust among different categories Labour leader Joseph Muscat trumps Adrian Delia across all regions, with significant distance separating them in Gozo, the Southern Harbour region and the South East