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8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 APRIL 2021 MALTATODAY SURVEY Trust Barometer and Political Survey Robert Abela Bernard Grech Neither Don't know -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 47.2% 7.4pp 35.8% 10.3% -8.6pp 6.8% 11 April 2021 PP change 7 Mar 2021 Between Robert Abela and Bernard Grech, who do you trust the most? Full demographics comparing trust between Abela and Grech ALL PL now PN now No vote PL 2017 PN 2017 Didn't vote 2017 Male Female 16-35 36-50 51-65 65+ Primary Secondary Post-sec Tertiary Gozo Northern N Harbour S Eastern S Harbour Western 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 47.2% 35.8% 10.3% 6.8% 98.6% 93.1% 31.5% 46.5% 17.1% 85.4% 7.3% 78.3% 7.7% 6.8% 17.8% 19.2% 41.0% 22.0% 49.2% 34.8% 10.9% 45.2% 36.7% 9.6% 8.4% 45.5% 18.3% 21.6% 14.6% 40.5% 41.8% 13.1% 50.8% 38.8% 6.6% 52.1% 42.9% 55.9% 41.0% 54.7% 37.6% 49.1% 27.8% 15.6% 7.5% 32.4% 34.9% 18.5% 14.2% 55.9% 34.9% 7.4% 31.0% 55.2% 6.9% 6.9% 41.1% 36.9% 12.5% 9.6% 54.1% 24.3% 10.2% 11.4% 58.7% 30.2% 8.8% 47.3% 34.0% 13.5% Robert Abela Bernard Grech None Don't know Which political party would you vote for if an election were to be held tomorrow? ROBERT Abela's trust rating has bounced up by seven points since last month and now stands at 47.2%, the April MaltaToday Survey shows. Opposition leader Bernard Grech scores his highest trust rating at 35.8%, an increase of one point over his perfor- mance last month. The trust gap between the leaders has more than doubled to 11 points as a re- sult of Abela's substantial recovery. The survey was carried out between Monday 5 April and Friday 9 April. The Prime Minister hit an all-time low last month on the back of a surge in COVID-19 cases that prompted gov- ernment to introduce restrictive meas- ures. It appears that Abela's approach to the pandemic and his measured words have left their mark on the electorate. Abela's rating suggests that the arrest and prosecution of his predecessor's chief of staff, Keith Schembri, on mon- ey laundering charges may have left a positive impact. The April survey reverses the con- stant decline in trust that the Prime Minister has registered since Novem- ber last year. However, the numbers confirm that Abela's trust rating remains volatile with significant swings either way, de- pending on the prevailing circumstanc- es. This contrasts with the results for the Nationalist Party leader, whose trust rating has remained relatively constant since the beginning of the year. Younger voters shun Grech Although Grech's trust rating now is his highest since becoming PN leader last September, he still trails Abela sig- nificantly. A breakdown of the results by age shows that Grech suffers among young- er voters. In the 16-35 age group, Grech has a trust rating of 18.3%, against Abela's 45.5%. However, among those aged between 36 and 50, Grech edges out the Prime Minister with a trust score of 41.8% against Abela's 40.5%. The Prime Minister has strengthened his standing among pensioners, scoring a trust rating of 52.1%, against Grech's 42.9%. Abela wins all regions bar North Abela trumps Grech among men and women but the Labour Party leader en- joys a stronger standing among male voters. On a geographical basis, Abela beats Grech in all regions except the North- ern. In the Northern region, which is com- posed of Għargħur, Mellieħa, Mġarr, Mosta, Naxxar and St Paul's Bay, Grech enjoys a trust rating of 55.2% against Abela's 31%. The Opposition leader's worst show- ing is in the South-Eastern region where he only manages a trust rating of 24.3%. Abela's best performance is in the Southern Harbour with a trust rating of 58.8%, followed by Gozo where he scores 55.9%. In the South-Eastern re- gion Abela also scores an absolute ma- jority with 54.1%. Analysing the results by party alle- giance, shows that Abela enjoys the trust of 85.4% of people who voted for the PL in the 2017 general election. He also earns the trust of 7.3% of voters who voted for the PN. Grech enjoys the trust of 78.3% of people who voted for his party in the last general election and 4.9% of those who voted for the PL. Robert Abela's trust rebounds as Grech scores best performance KURT SANSONE