Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1234806
15 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 APRIL 2020 NEWS Labour leads by 26 points but PN gains in Gozo KURT SANSONE THE Labour Party remains comfortably ahead of the Na- tionalist Party with a 26-point lead but loses some of its grip on Gozo, a MaltaToday survey finds. Support for the PL stands at 49.1%, while the PN reg- isters 23.3%. Both parties have posted gains since last month's survey – an increase of 3.1 points for the PL and 4.2 points for the PN. The governing party emerges ahead of its rival across all age groups, both sexes, all regions and every educational back- ground. However, the waters appear to have stirred in Gozo, where the PN registers 44.8% against the PL's 48.2%. Only last month, the PN barely featured in the survey as the PL scored over 60% support on the sister is- land. This could be linked to the as yet u n f u l f i l l e d commitment by Steward Health Care to build a modern gen- eral hospi- tal in Gozo, a situation made more ur- gent in the midst of a health crisis caused by the coro- navirus pandemic. The PL scores the high- est support in the 51-65 age group, where it registers 62.2% against the PN's 16.3%. However, the PL registers its lowest result in the 36-50 age group with 37.7% against the PN's 25.9%. The PN scores highest among the elderly, securing 32.4% of those aged 65 and over, against the PL's 48.2%. Among the young (18-35), the PL has the support of 50.1% against the PN's 20.4% A breakdown of results by party allegiance shows that the PN is still losing votes to the PL. The survey shows that 7.8% of those who voted PN in the last election will vote Labour, while the PN only gains 1% of those who voted for its rival. Third parties remain non-ex- istent with Alternattiva Demokratika scoring a measly 0.1% and the Democratic Par- ty not featuring at all. Methodology The survey was carried out between Monday 6 April and Thursday 9 April 2020. 652 re- spondents opted to complete the survey. Stratified random sam- pling based on region, age and gender was used to replicate the Maltese demographic. The esti- mated margin of error is 5% for a confidence interval of 95% for the overall results. Demographic and sub-group breakdowns have larger margins of error. S Eastern S Harbour Western 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 65.6% 27.6% 73.2% 15.5% 6.4% 52.6% 6.7% 35.0% Which political party would you vote for if a general election were to be held tomorrow? ALL PL PN Didn't vote M F 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% 49.1% 23.3% 18.7% 7.2% 87.1% 9.0% 7.8% 60.4% 19.1% 12.7% 6.7% 65.4% 11.9% 44.8% 25.2% 19.0% 9.4% 54.2% 21.0% 18.3% 50.1% 20.4% 18.1% 9.3% 37.7% 25.9% 23.7% 10.9% 62.2% 16.3% 16.8% 48.2% 32.4% 14.1% 66.6% 19.6% 57.4% 21.5% 14.3% 6.5% 38.7% 30.3% 17.8% 11.8% 40.9% 18.5% 31.4% 6.4% 48.2% 44.8% 7.0% 41.2% 10.2% 36.7% 6.4% 41.2% 33.0% 18.8% 7.0% 50.1% 26.7% 17.9% 62.8% 12.4% 13.0% 7.7% 47.8% 16.7% 18.6% 16.1% PL PN AD Do not know No vote 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 region (65.6%). The Labour leader retains the trust of 94.8% of those who vot- ed for his party in the last general election and earns the trust of a quarter of those who voted for the PN. Abela's inroads among PN vot- ers is three points higher than the result obtained last February. Who trusts Delia? The Opposition leader achieves a slightly better result among men (18.3%) than wom- en (16.1%) but falters among those aged between 18 and 35, where he only manages 9.3%. Delia's strongest showing is among those aged 65 and over, where he is trusted by 31.6%. The PN leader's strongest ap- peal is among those with a sec- ondary education (22.9%), drop- ping to a dismal 6.8% among people with a tertiary education. In Gozo, Delia makes an impres- sive comeback, albeit still trailing Abela. The PN leader earns the trust of 21.5% of Gozitans, a mas- sive up-tick on the 3% registered last month. However, Delia's best trust rat- ing is in the South-Eastern region where he enjoys the support of 27.6%. His worst performance is in the Western region, where Delia only manages a trust rating of 6.7%. The PN leader remains hound- ed by the lack of trust from his party's supporters. This has been a recurrent problem since Delia became leader of the PN in September 2017. He enjoys the trust of 40.8% of those who voted PN in the last general election but is troubled by a quarter who trust no one, and anoth- er quarter who trust the Prime Minister. Delia only manages to earn the trust of 3.2% of those who vot- ed for the Labour Party. The Opposition leader achieves a slightly better result among men (18.3%) than women (16.1%) but falters among those aged between 18 and 35, where he only manages 9.3% The waters appear to have stirred in Gozo, where the PN registers 44.8% against the PL's 48.2%