mt SURVEY
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 NOVEMBER 2024
PARTIES NECK AND NECK
AFTER BUDGET
PN LEADING LABOUR BY 2,600 VOTES DOWN FROM 12,000 VOTES
IN SEPTEMBER. DIFFERENCE IS WITHIN MARGIN OF ERROR.
THE Nationalist Party is just one
point ahead of the Labour Party, Mal-
taToday's post budget survey shows.
The results see the PL reducing the
PN's lead from 11,699 votes in Sep-
tember to just 2,647 votes now.
The PN scores 46.3%, a two-point
drop since September, while the PL
gains 1.5 points and sees its support
climb to 45.3% from 43.8%.
The one-point difference between
the two main parties falls squarely
within the survey's margin of error,
which technically means that either
party could be in the lead at the pres-
ent juncture.
Support for ADPD dropped slightly
from 4.5% to 4.1% while that for other
parties or independents has increased
from 3.5% to 4.2%.
Once again the shift towards the PN
is mostly attributable to a higher ab-
stention rate among past Labour vot-
ers.
The survey results show that if a
general election were to be held now,
the turnout would be 70.6% down
from 75.7% in September. This sug-
gests that despite the budget hype and
the heightened political temperature
following the latest scandal involving
an ethics breach by two Cabinet min-
isters, more people have switched off
from politics in the past weeks.
The survey was conducted after the
budget and coincided with Bernard
Grech's reply to the budget and Rob-
ert Abela's counter reply. It also coin-
cided with political controversy after
JAMES
DEBONO
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
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