Alex Borg in strong lead for PN leadership poll among party members
Leaked survey puts Borg well ahead of Delia and Debono, almost half respondents undecided, give no response
Alex Borg is currently the clear favourite among PN members to become the party’s new leader, according to a survey leaked to Times of Malta by PN sources.
The survey of party members places Adrian Delia in second place, with former PN MP Franco Debono a distant third.
Other names being touted, such as Mark Anthony Sammut, barely registered among respondents. The survey’s respondents also appear not too keen on the prospect of Bernard Grech holding on to the role.
However, the survey reveals that the votes of several members are up for grabs, with a third of all respondents saying they don’t know who they would like to lead the party and a further 9% declining to respond.
In total, almost 43% of all respondents did not express a preference.
The survey was carried out between June 14 and 16, in the immediate aftermath of Roberta Metsola's decision not to run for the party's leadership. It asked 500 party members to list their preferred choice of party leader, with a margin of error of 4.3%.
Borg first choice for over a quarter of members
The survey shows that 27.5% of respondents opted for Gozitan MP Alex Borg, with former leader Adrian Delia registering 19.3% of preferences and Franco Debono scoring 8.8%.
The only other candidates to register any preferences were current leader Bernard Grech and MPs Mark Anthony Sammut and Ivan Castillo.
Borg was the preferred choice across most age groups, registering at least a third of preferences among all members aged between 26 and 65.
He also performed strongly among younger party members under the age of 25, where he was the joint top choice alongside Franco Debono, both with just under a fifth of all preferences.
Debono and Delia, on the other hand, both had contrasting fortunes.
While Debono performed strongly among younger party members, receiving almost a fifth of votes from those under 45, he has yet to win over older members.
By contrast, Delia was popular among older members, being the clear favourite among those over the age of 66, but struggled to make a dent with the party’s youth wing.
On the whole, younger party members under the age of 25 remain on the fence, with almost two-thirds of them either saying they don’t know who their preferred leader is (36.4%) or not replying at all (27.3%).
The survey also suggests there is no gender divide among party members. Both men and women listed Borg as their top choice, placing Delia and Debono in second and third, respectively.
The PN is expected to kick off the process to elect a new leader at the end of this month, with the election taking place later in the summer.