Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1540090
mt SURVEY SUNDAY • 5 OCTOBER 2025 | maltatoday 10 Abela leads Borg by 13 points ROBERT Abela is trusted with running the country by 47% of voters while Alex Borg scores 34% in a direct confron- tation, MaltaToday's October survey shows. The survey shows the prime minister enjoying a substantial 13-point advan- tage over the new PN leader. Nonetheless, Borg has managed to sig- nificantly narrow the trust gap between the party leaders from 31.2 points in June when Bernard Grech headed the PN, to 12.5 points now. Borg's trust rating is also 7.5 points higher than Grech's score in a similar survey held exactly a year ago but is strikingly similar to Grech's trust rating of 31% in the first MaltaToday survey after he was elected PN leader in Octo- ber 2020, when he trailed Abela by 16 points. The gap between the two leaders is outside the survey's +/-3.6 margin of error. When taking this factor into ac- count, Abela's trust lead could be an- ywhere between 5.3 points and 19.7 points. The trust boost for the PN leader can be mostly attributed to renewed enthu- siasm among current PN voters. Within this group, the percentage of those who trust neither leader has dropped from 38.1% in June to just 12.8% now. While in June, Grech was trusted by just 58.3% of current PN voters, Borg is now trust- ed by 84.3% of current PN voters. Moreover, while the survey registers a trust boost for the PN leader, Robert Abela has seen his trust rating plummet by 3.4 points since June. However, Borg's gains are mostly the result of a decrease in the percentage of respondents who trust neither leader; from 31.2% in June to 19.4% now. Non-voters prefer Abela to Borg Despite Borg's improved ratings over his predecessor's, the sur- vey still shows that Abela remains substantially more trusted than the Opposi- tion leader among current non-voters. Among this strategic cat- egory, while 27.1% trust Abela only 5.7% trust Borg. This suggests that La- bour has potential to grow among those respondents who prefer Abela to Borg but are still intent on not voting. The survey also shows both leaders making inroads among the voters of the opposing camp. While 7.9% of PL vot- ers in 2022 now trust Borg more than Abela, 8.7% of PN voters in 2022 now trust Abela more than Borg. Abela leads in all regions except Gozo Despite Labour trailing the PN in three out of six regions, Abela leads Borg in all regions, except Gozo where the PN leader en- joys a healthy 19.6-point lead. These figures are on- ly indicative due to the considerably larger mar- gin of error when survey data is broken down in sub sets. The bad news for the PN is that apart from leading by a considerable margin in the tradition- ally Labour-leaning South Harbour (17.2 points) and South Eastern (28.1 points) regions, Abela is also leading in PN-leaning regions—11.4 points in the Northern region, 11.5 points in the North Harbour and 14.1 points in the more balanced Western region. Borg registers his lowest trust rating in the South Eastern region where he is only trusted by 27.4% of voters. In con- trast, Abela registers his lowest rating in Gozo (30.7%) while surpassing the 50% mark in three regions—South Eastern, South Harbour and Western. Abela more trusted by all age groups Despite the PN leading the PL by eight points among the 16- to 35-year- old cohort, Robert Abela still enjoys a substantial trust lead of 9.5 points over Borg in this category. This suggests that a substantial portion of younger voters presently intent on not voting still lean towards Labour. Still, Borg fares much better than his predecessor in this younger age group. The percentage who trusts the PN lead- er over the PL leader has shot up from 9.6% in June to 33.5% now. Both Borg and Abela register their highest trust rating among over 65-year-olds. But in this category while 52.3% trust the prime minister, 41.3% prefer Borg. Abela also leads Borg by a staggering 22.8 ppoints among those aged between 36 and 50 and by 7.3 points among those aged between 51 and 65. Borg gets better ratings among women The survey once again shows that Ab- ela is more trusted by both sexes. But Borg's trust rating is substantially high- er amongst women (36.4%) than men (31.7%). Abela is also more trusted than Borg in all educational groups except those with a post-secondary level of educa- tion. In this strategic category where Labour has made major inroads in the past decade, Borg leads by 6.3 points. Abela leads Borg by 3.7 points among the tertiary educated and by a substan- tial 20.7 points among the secondary level educated. The prime minister also leads by 9.2 points among those with a primary level of education. The tertiary educated are the most likely to trust neither leader (28.5%). JAMES DEBONO jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt 20.0% 10.0% 0 PL 2022 PN 2022 No vote 2022 7.8% 0.1% 0.5% 0.6% 9.9% 5.6% 2% 0.4% 0.7% 5.2% 5.4% 19.8% 0.8% 4.4% 1.3% PL PN Momentum ADPD OtPer Will not vote Current voters 110% 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0 Current PL voters Current PN voters Current non voters 96.7% 3.3% 0% 2.9% 84.3% 12.8% 27.1% 5.7% 67.2% Robert Abela Alex Borg None Trust Barometer Profile of non-voters Age Gender Regions Education Past vote Robert Abela Alex Borg None 0 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% 46.6% 34.1% 19.4% All Voters Age Gender Region Education 2022 Voters 100.0% 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0 PL 2022 PN 2022 No vote 2022 81.1% 7.8% 0.1% 0.5% 0.6% 9.9% 5.6% 86.1% 2% 0.4% 0.7% 5.2% 5.4% 19.8% 0.8% 4.4% 1.3% 68.3% PL PN Momentum ADPD OtPer Will not vote Current voters 110% 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0 Current PL voters Current PN voters Current non voters 96.7% 3.3% 0% 2.9% 84.3% 12.8% 27.1% 5.7% 67.2% Robert Abela Alex Borg None Trust Barometer Profile of non-voters Age Gender Regions Education Past vote 28% 26% 24% 22% 20% 18% 16% 14% 12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% 0 PL voters in 2022 General Election PN voters in 2022 General Election 9.9% 5.2% Robert Abela Alex Borg None 0 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% 46.6% 34.1% 19.4% All Voters How do you rate government's performance?