Alex Borg loses ground as support dips: Times of Malta poll

Support for PN leader Alex Borg has declined since his election last September, a new Times of Malta poll shows, with a sharp drop in his home district of Gozo.

The poll finds that Borg registered a trust rating of just 4.78 from voters, a sharp dip from the 5.38 rating he received in a similar poll in October, immediately after his election as PN leader.

This suggests a drop in trust of almost seven percentage points since his election.

The poll, carried out throughout early April, asked a representative sample of 600 respondents to rate each party leader out of 10. Polling was carried out by market research firm Esprimi.

Support for Borg has dipped among all voter groups, the poll suggests.

Respondents who voted PN in the last general election in 2022 still view Borg positively, awarding him a rating of 7.11, only a slight dip from October’s 7.2 score.

Labour voters continue to place little trust in Borg. Today’s 3.74 score is well below the 4.38 rating he received when first elected.

Most significantly, Borg also appears to have lost some of his shine among people who did not vote last time around, as well as those who voted for third parties.

Support for Borg among 2022’s non-voters has dropped from a score of 5.14 in October to 4.39.

His trust rating among those who voted for ADPD or other small parties also experienced a similar dip.

Borg has also lost support in his electoral stronghold, Gozo, where he now trails Robert Abela, with his score dropping from 6.12 in October to just 4.7 today.

This suggests an almost 16 percentage point drop in trust for Borg in Gozo over the past seven months. However, this figure needs to be treated with some caution, with the poll’s margin of error growing as individual voting segments are analysed.

As Borg’s honeymoon period has tailed off, fewer people have come to believe that the 30-year-old lawyer is the ideal person to lead PN, the poll suggests.

In October, he was the overwhelming choice, with over 48 per cent of all voters saying he should be PN leader.

This has since dropped to 36 per cent, while a further third (32 per cent) say they are unsure of who should lead the party.

And while 58 per cent of Gozitans previously thought he was the ideal PN leader, this has now plummeted to just 34 per cent.

Nevertheless, Borg’s overall popularity remains far ahead of other potential PN leaders, including Roberta Metsola (13 per cent) and Adrian Delia (six per cent).

Support for Borg also remains far higher than that experienced by his predecessor, Bernard Grech, throughout much of his tenure. Previous polls had shown Grech frequently trailing both Metsola and Delia in popularity.

Borg also remains overwhelmingly popular among his party core, with 68.8 per cent of PN voters saying he is the man for the job, only a slight dip from October’s 72.3 per cent.

Trust in Abela rises but still far short of his early days

Abela, on the other hand, has continued to solidify his support, with his overall trust rating rising from 5.5 in October to almost 5.9 today.

The poll suggests he has successfully rallied support among past Labour voters, now registering a trust rating of eight among this group, higher than at any other point during the past legislature.

However, Abela continues to narrowly trail Borg for trust among non-voters and most third-party voters, indicating that he is still viewed with scepticism outside Labour circles.

And Abela’s overall trust rating of 5.85 remains well below his early days as PM, when he peaked at 6.9 just ahead of the 2022 election.