Election Desk: The numbers don’t lie

Welcome to the Election Desk. This is where we round up the major headlines of the last 24 hours, together with some of the more light-hearted and funnier sides of the campaign trail.

It’s not even close

A new Times of Malta poll has confirmed what a lot of people are privately suspecting: Labour is heading for a comfortable victory, and the gap seems to be getting wider.

The Esprimi poll, which is based on 600 respondents surveyed between May 6 and 13, puts Labour in the lead with 52.9% of the vote, with the PN’s vote share at 44%. This would translate to around 28,600 votes. A month ago, that gap stood at 19,600.

It seems that in the space of three weeks of campaigning, Labour has added around 9,000 votes to its advantage.

The picture is even bleaker for Alex Borg when you look at the trust ratings. Abela’s score has jumped from 5.85 to 6.82, the highest rating of his at any point during this legislature. Meanwhile, Borg slipped from 4.78 to 4.23, meaning there is a 29-percentage point gap between the two leaders.

The only sliver of comfort for the PN is that Borg is performing relatively well among university graduates, where the two leaders are roughly neck and neck.

The gap between the two parties has widened since the electoral campaign kicked off. File photos: Matthew Mirabelli

The Gozo problem

You would think the fact that Borg hails from Gozo would give him a boost on the sister island. This does not seem to be the case.

Last October, just after he was named PN leader, Borg scored 6.12 in his home region. That fell to 4.70 in April, and it has now dropped further to 4.44. In the same period, Abela has gone from 5.07 to 7.42 in Gozo. However, nearly four in ten Gozitans remain undecided, so maybe a last-minute change of heart among this cohort could move in Borg’s favour.

Momentum wants to fix your contract

While Labour and the PN battle it out at the top, Momentum continues to roll out policy measures. This weekend, the party turned its attention to workers on definite contracts – rolling temporary arrangements that can drag on for up to four years before converting to a permanent position.

Momentum wants to halve that maximum period to two years. It also wants employers who don’t renew a contract but then reopen the same post within a year to be legally required to offer the job back to the original employee. The party said this would end a system that keeps workers in “a permanent state of waiting”.

The proposals come bundled with pledges on maternity leave (26 weeks on full pay), parental leave (a year, shared between parents, with four months non-transferable), and equal pay for agency workers doing the same jobs as state employees. Whether any of this makes it into parliament depends on Momentum actually winning seats, which is a long shot if the polls are correct.

ADPD: Give every building a passport

ADPD was also rolling out policy ideas this weekend and came up with a seemingly novel idea. The Greens would introduce a mandatory “passport” for every building in Malta and Gozo, consolidating all planning, construction and condition documents in one place and administered by the Building and Construction Authority.

The proposal was announced in Paceville, which was fitting given that a building there collapsed entirely about a year ago. Chairperson Sandra Gauci said most of the documents that would be attached to the passport already exist legally, but they are not accessible in one place.

ADPD also called for a national geological service, something which every country in Europe seems to have, bar Malta. Deputy chairperson Carmel Cacopardo pointed out that existing geological knowledge of the islands is largely based on data left behind by the British military.

ADPD was also happy to point out that neither Labour nor the PN has made any significant proposals on construction sector reform.

ADPD chairperson Sandra Gauci and deputy chairperson Carmel Cacopardo at Saturday's press conference in Paceville. Photo: ADPD