Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1113313
16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 MAY 2019 NEWS EUROPEAN ELECTIONS Miriam Dalli pulls ahead as Norman Lowell registers for the first time MIRIAM Dalli has pulled ahead of fel- low European Parliament election can- didates with the third survey mapping out voter preferences giving her 11.8% support. The Labour MEP jumps up three points since the last MaltaToday survey in April, securing the top spot by a sig- nificant margin. She is followed by colleague and MEP, Alfred Sant, who sees his support in- crease by 0.2 points to secure 8.8% of voter preferences. Nationalist Party MEP Roberta Met- sola retains the third place with 6.4% of voter preferences. She sees her share of the vote increase by more than one per- centage point over April. The survey was held between 25 April and 3 May, coinciding with the election campaign launch of the two major par- ties. Dalli, Sant and Metsola are the only candidates to register scores above the margin of error and have been doing so since the first voter preference survey in March. The survey polled people only on their first-choice candidate. There were 37.5% of respondents who did not know who they would be giving their number one vote to. Although still very high, this is significantly lower than the 49.3% in the April survey who could not indicate a first-choice candidate. This means that more people have made up their mind over the past month as individual candidate campaigns stepped up a gear. The survey shows that the PL's third seat may be a hot contest between Alex Agius Saliba and Josianne Cutajar, who secure 1.7% and 1.4% respectively. They may both make it as MEPs if the PL wins four seats, although this will very much depend on how votes are transferred. On the PN side, Frank Psaila retains second place behind Metsola with 2.9% of voter preferences but the newcomer experienced a drop of 1.5 points over the April result. Hot on his heels are incumbent MEP David Casa with 2% of voter preferences and newcomer Peter Agius with 1.8%. A significant entrant into the rankings is far-right Imperium Europa's candi- date Norman Lowell, who clocks 1.2%. This is the first time that Lowell has fea- tured. Lowell's support is predominantly coming from younger males in the Northern region, which includes the lo- calities of St Paul's Bay and Mellieha. Labour front runners Miriam Dalli's support among wom- en and men is evenly spread. She is the first-choice candidate for 10.5% of women and 12.9% of men. Dalli also enjoys relatively even sup- port across all age groups. Among those aged 18 to 35, she scores 8.4% and 15% among the elderly. Her closest Labour rival, Alfred Sant, has the support of 11.1% of men and 6.2% of women. The former prime min- ister flops among young voters, regis- tering less than a percentage point, but soars among those aged 65 and over with 19.1%. Dalli also has even support across all regions apart from the Western, where she flounders at 2.8%. In Gozo, Dalli reg- istered 10.5% of voter preferences. Sant's support is less pronounced in the northern regions, including Gozo but in the Western region he manages 10.5%. Of those who voted PL in the last gen- eral election, 22% support Dalli and 17.2% Sant. Nationalist front runners Roberta Metsola's support among women is almost double what it is among men. She manages 8.7% of the female vote and 4.4% of the male vote. She enjoys stronger support among people aged less than 51 and her best showing is in the Western region with 12% and tapers down to 2.1% in the Northern Harbour. In Gozo, Metsola registers 6%. Frank Psaila's numbers show that his support is primarily in the Northern re- gion and the Southern Harbour region. He registers no support in Gozo and the South Eastern regions. More men than women support Psaila, who fares better than Metsola among those aged between 51 and 65. However, given that Psaila's overall score is below the margin of error, his numbers have to be interpreted with greater caution. Among those who voted PN in the last general election, Metsola is the first- choice candidate for 15.7%, more than double Psaila's at 6.5%. The third MaltaToday survey asking people to indicate their first- choice candidate in the forthcoming European election sees the top three candidates consolidate their vote 11.8% 6.4% 2.9% 1.8% 2% Methodology The survey was carried out between Thursday 25 April and Friday 3 May. 602 respondents opted to complete the survey. Stratified random sampling based on gender, region and age was used to replicate the Maltese demographics. The estimated margin of error is 5% for a confidence interval of 95%. LEADING CANDIDATES Miriam Dalli (PL) Roberta Metsola (PN) Alfred Sant (PL) Frank Psaila (PN) David Casa (PL) Peter Agius (PN) 8.8% KURT SANSONE Lowell's support is predominantly coming from younger males in the Northern region, which includes the localities of St Paul's Bay and Mellieha