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WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION €1.00 Newspaper post WEDNESDAY • 1 JUNE 2016 • ISSUE 471 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY EDITORIAL • PAGE 9 PL's lead down to 1 point but Muscat still substantially ahead of Busuttil JAMES DEBONO SURVEYS on voting intentions suggest that the 13-point lead enjoyed by Labour in the 2013 general election has been dras- tically scaled down, with the party now leading the PN by just a single point. But surveys show Muscat leading Busuttil by a more substantial 7-point margin. A comparison with past surveys shows that an 8-point gap between the two main parties registered in January and March 2015 has been wiped out, first halved after the Gaffarena scandal erupted in June last year and than obliterated after Panamagate. Surveys also show that Muscat has seen his trust lead over Busuttil halved from 15 points in January 2015 to 7 points now. In an indication of retrenchment, Labour did manage to widen the gap from 0.9 to 2.1 between March and April. But the last survey shows the gap cut down again to just 1 point. Support for AD reached a historic low of 0.8% in February fuelling speculation on the party's demise but support of the party has now reached 2.2% (which is the highest since 2015). But AD already faces competition from Marlene Farrugia's em- bryonic new party – which was brought up by 1.5% of the respondents despite not even having been officially launched. The survey suggests that Muscat remains substantially more popular than his party. For while the two parties are neck to neck with regards to voting intentions, Muscat leads by 7 points. Moreover, Muscat's de- cline has been slower than that of his par- ty. Muscat was still leading Busuttil by 13 points in June 2015 when his party was only leading by 4 points. The gap was only reduced to 9 points in January 2016. Muscat's popularity fell to an all-time low in March in the immediate aftermath of Panamagate. The gap between the two leaders fell to just 4 points but Mus- cat recovered 3 points in April, and kept the same advantage in May. The results of the survey are being repub- lished in today's edition after the text of the survey in last Sunday's print edition refer- ring to this month's survey was incorrect, as it referred to the survey carried out in April. MT SURVEY • PAGES 4-5 New Bormla police station snatched by Sadeen JURGEN BALZAN THE move of the Bormla police station to a new premises in Dock 1 is off after the building was given to the Jordanian company converting the site into a private educational institute. MaltaToday understands that the move of the police station was imminent with the premises at the dock's entrance being fully furnished to function as a police station. The police station is currently housed in an old building 100 me- tres away from Dock 1, just off the Bormla square. However, the move will not go ahead after the building was handed over to the Jordanian company who will incorporate the building in the forthcoming American Institute of Malta. Questions sent to the home af- fairs ministry remained unan- swered at the time of going to print. The completion of the project in Bormla – which will see the con- version of the Dock 1 – is expect- ed to take three years. The Planning Authority is cur- rently reviewing the application for development permission of the British building, which in- cludes the change of use into an educational institution, the re- construction of missing original volumes, interior alterations and extensions including the addition of an extra floor. So far, only permits for restora- tion works have been issued. Sadeen Education Investment Ltd, the company established in Malta by the Sadeen Group to de- velop the American University of Malta, is only licensed to carry out the activities of a higher education institution since it does not have enough learning programmes for a university licence. Launch of new political party imminent Decision to launch independent MP Marlene Farrugia's new party to be taken by core group on Thursday, unnamed party to use orange as its colour PAGE 6