Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1520732
7 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 15 MAY 2024 SURVEY the more nuanced Western region (34%). In an indication that Labour has picked up support in its heartlands, abstention in the South Harbour region has declined from 31.3% in April to 27.7% now while support for Labour has increased from 42.8% to 48%. In the Southeastern region a drop of 6.9 point in the abstention rate corresponded to an 8-point increase in support for Labour. This suggests that Abela's strat- egy of galvanising core voters has paid off in the south of Malta but may well have come at a cost in the northern regions where the party has lost support. This is particularly the case in the Western region where an 8.3-point increase in non-voters from April is corresponded by an 8.4 drop in the Labour vote. Although Labour leads the PN in Gozo by 10 points, even here a 4-point increase in non-voters cor- responded to a 4-point decrease in support for Labour. Third parties make inroads among mid income voters Support for third parties is peaking at 13.9% among respondents earn- ing between €2,001 and €3,000. This category also registers the highest abstention rate (37.7%) and the lowest score for the PN (20.9%). The survey shows Labour leading among respondents earning less than €3,000 and the PN leading among respondents earning €3,001 or more. Support for Labour is highest among those earning less than €1,000 (37.9%) and lowest among those earning more than €3,001 (18.9%). And while the PN leads Labour by 11.5 points among tertiary educat- ed voters, it fails to make any gains among the post-secondary educat- ed, a category which includes people who continued their studies after secondary school in institutions like Cast but who did not attend univer- sity. Within this category where ab- stention peaks at 40.2% the PL still leads the PN by 4.5 points. This confirms trends in previous sur- veys pointing at the PN's inability to make inroads in this category despite increased disaffection with government. Labour also leads the PN by 11.9 points among the secondary ed- ucated and by a staggering 36.9 points among respondents with a primary level of education. Support for third parties is high- est among the tertiary educated respondents (11.1%) and lowest among those with a primary level of education (0.6%). Voting intentions by age Voting intentions by region