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maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 16 APRIL 2025 NEWS MAYA GALEA jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt MaltaToday survey: THE latest MaltaToday survey reveals Labour regaining sup- port, the PN struggling with ab- stention and leadership trust, and third parties still facing frag- mentation. We revisit the numbers to high- light the five main takeaways from the April survey. 1. PN with bigger abstention problem than Labour For the past two years, the PN had been making inroads, mainly thanks to a growing number of former Labour voters intending to abstain. This meant the PN was closing the gap not on its own merits but by default. How- ever, this strategy only worked as long as Labour continued losing a significant portion of its 2022 voters to abstention. In the latest survey, Labour is now losing just 11% of its 2022 voters to abstention – it previ- ously was losing about 20% of its voters. This change coincides with a budget that left more money in the pockets of the low- er middle class and which started to be felt towards the end of the first quarter. Meanwhile, the PN – previ- ously losing around 10% of its 2022 voters to abstention – is now losing 19%. In short, the PN currently has a bigger abstention problem than Labour. This shift could be due to a combination of factors including: General distrust in the party's leadership, voter resignation, and reduced political engagement with no election on the horizon. A silver lining for the PN is that it is still benefitting from a slight shift in support. Labour is losing 5.3% of its 2022 voters to the PN, while only 2% of PN's 2022 voters are moving to Labour. However, poor polling results risk creating a snowball effect, further demoralising PN sup- porters and reinforcing the per- ception of Labour's electoral invincibility. While the survey suggests Labour's 2022 majority is eroding, the PN risks internal turmoil if it fails to gain ground. The survey suggests that the par- ty has failed to sustain the mo- mentum it gained following its relatively positive showing in the AFM drug heist: Fifth suspect arraigned granted bail LIAM Stewart, the fifth man who was charged in connection to the drug heist from the army's Ħal Safi barracks was granted bail on Tuesday. Stewart was arraigned on 27 February and charged with pos- session and trafficking of canna- bis resin, cannabis and cocaine and he was also accused of driv- ing without a licence and caus- ing voluntary damage to a van. A plastic bag containing can- nabis resin was found in his ac- cused's pocket, with a substance believed to be cocaine also being found in his car. Further search- es of his residence revealed an additional two bags containing a substantial amount of canna- bis buds as well as suspected co- caine. On 26 February, Sean Attard, 30, from Ħaż-Żebbuġ, Carlos Pace, 23, from Marsa, Yousef Es- sesi, 33, from St Paul's Bay and Cleaven Pace, 19, from Marsa were also charged in relation to the drug heist and were all de- nied bail. Christa Gauci, the girlfriend of Cleaven Pace, a 19-year-old who, along with his brother Car- los, was charged with the rob- bery and also denied bail. However, Liam Stewart was granted bail against a €10,000 deposit and a €15,000 personal guarantee and ordered to sign the bail book every day. The prosecution was led by In- spectors Alfredo Mangion and Jeffrey Scicluna Briffa with the assistance of AG lawyer Maria Francesca Spiteri. Defence lawyers Franco Debono, Adreana Zammit, and Marion Camilleri appeared for Stewart. Two teens on bail after admitting to breaking another minor's jaw during fight TWO minors, a 16-year-old teenager from Tarxien and a 17-year-old from Żabbar, have pleaded guilty to causing griev- ous injuries to another minor and disturbing public peace. Inspector Jeremy Rizzo ex- plained that on 7 March, the police were informed of an al- tercation which had occurred in Hastings Garden, in Valletta and were asked to investigate. The initial medical report indicated that the victim had only suffered slight injuries but following another medical re- port, it later resulted that the injuries were actually grievous since the victim's jaw was bro- ken. Inspector Rizzo also informed the court that during the fight, one of the accused took a photo of the victim being beat up and Abela later posted it online, captioning it "no mercy". The defence did not contest the validity of the arrest. After being given additional time to consider their admis- sion, they confirmed their guilt. The defence requested bail however the prosecution did not object on the basis that the accused were minors and therefore they do not expect an effective term of imprisonment to be awarded. Magistrate Caroline Farru- gia Frendo therefore granted the two minors bail against a personal guarantee of €5,000 each. A number of conditions were also imposed by the court included signing the bail book twice a week. A protection order was also granted in favour of the victim. The parties were also in agreement that the compila- tion of evidence will continue at the Juvenile Court. AG lawyer Valentina Cassar and Inspector Jeffrey Rizzo prosecuted. The 16-year-old was assisted by defence lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri and the 17-year-old was represented by defence lawyer Amadeus Cachia. Left to right: Foreign Minister Ian Borg, Prime Minister JAMES DEBONO takes us through five takeaways from our latest snapshot