Robert Abela and Roberta Metsola remain the country’s most popular leaders, with PN leader Bernard Grech struggling to make up ground, according to a new Times of Malta poll.

The poll finds that both Abela and Metsola are the clear frontrunners for their respective parties, each of them being selected as the top pick by 28% of respondents.

While this marks Abela’s highest tally since March 2023, Metsola’s rating has dipped slightly since the question was last asked in October 2023, when a third of all voters picked her as the best leader for PN.

And while Grech still trails both Abela and Metsola, it’s not all bad news for him. The 16% who picked him as their preferred PN leader is double what it was back in late 2023.

The poll, carried out by market research firm Esprimi, surveyed 600 people between January 30 and February 12.

Metsola runaway favourite amongst elderly, PN voters and non-voters

While it’s a close-run race between Metsola and Grech among younger voters under the age of 35, Metsola is the clear favourite among most older voters, with almost one in every two voters over the age of 65 saying she is their top choice.

And Metsola is also most popular amongst people who voted for PN back in the 2022 general election and, most tellingly, amongst those who chose not to vote at all.

While over a quarter of non-voters say Metsola would be the best PN leader, only 5% feel the same way about Grech.

Meanwhile, Adrian Delia, who scored strongly in previous polls, appears to have take a backseat, with only 4% now picking him as their preferred PN leader.

Ian Borg is Abela's top challenger

In Labour’s camp, Ian Borg emerges as the main challenger to Abela’s leadership, with one in every 10 respondents picking him as their preferred leader.

Borg previously barely featured when this question was asked in previous polls, with only Joseph Muscat typically putting up any challenge worthy of note.

But this poll suggests that Muscat’s popularity has faded, with just under 4% saying he should be PL leader.

While Abela scores strongly amongst all voters under the age of 55, older voters appear to be less keen on him, with most saying they don’t know who the leader should be.

And Abela also scores poorly amongst PN voters (who think Ian Borg would make a better leader) and people who didn’t vote at all in the 2022 election. On the other hand, more than half if all Labour voters chose to stick with Abela in the poll.

Trust in Abela and Grech grows

The good news for Abela is that his trust rating seems to be on the rebound, slowly reversing a dramatic slide throughout 2023.

Abela’s trust rating of 5.4 (out of 10) is the highest since the time of the March 2022 general election, when it was at an all-time high of 6.9.

Over the next year, Abela’s trust rating had plummeted, reaching a low of 4.3 in July 2023, but this appears to be gradually crawling back up.

Trust in Bernard Grech has also risen slightly since the last time this was measured back in October 2023, now reaching an all-time high of 4.3.

But this means that Grech’s highest trust rating is still only as good as Abela’s lowest point almost two years ago.

And Grech will be reassured to find that although he still trails Abela when it comes to his trust among people who didn’t vote in 2022, the gap between the two is negligible.