Labour has seen a 10-percentage point drop in its support, according to a poll commissioned by Times of Malta, but the Nationalist Party failed to capitalise on this as it faced its own loss of support equivalent to two percentage points.
According to the survey, carried out last week, 28 per cent of respondents said they would vote Labour while 13 per cent would vote for PN.
Another 10 per cent said they would not be voting, 17 per cent said they don't know who they would vote for and 32 per cent refused to answer.
During the last survey, 38 per cent said they would vote Labour and 15 per cent for the PN.
The survey was conducted by EMCS, an advisory and market research firm, between August 18 and August 21 among 388 respondents. It has a margin of error of five per cent.
When it comes to government leadership, 39 per cent of respondents feel Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne is the better performer.
Only one per cent chose Prime Minister Robert Abela.
Another 42 per cent of respondents are of the opinion that both Fearne and Abela are performing well.
Eight per cent of respondents said they do not know, three per cent refused to answer and two per cent expressed lack of interest.
Poor Abela support likely influenced by handling of COVID-19
The poor support level for Abela is likely to have been influenced by his perceived mishandling of the COVID-19 transition phase and the recent spike in cases.
People who voted PN in the 2017 election overwhelmingly prefer Fearne, with 68 per cent giving him their vote of confidence while Abela picked up negligible support. Another 15 per cent said neither of them are performing well.
Among those who voted for PL in 2017, 68 per cent felt that both are performing well.
Even here though, the gap between Fearne and Abela is wide, 22 per cent putting the performance of the deputy prime minister above that of his boss, and only three per cent giving their thumbs up to the prime minister.
Bernard Grech over Adrian Delia
The survey also asked who would make the best opposition leader between Adrian Delia and PN leadership challenger Bernard Grech.
Just over a quarter of respondents (26 per cent) chose Grech against just six per cent who favoured Delia.
A third – 33 per cent – said they did not know and another 16 per cent said neither Delia nor Grech would, for them, make the best opposition leader.
Five per cent of the respondents said both men are suited to the role while nine per cent refused to answer and five per cent said they were not interested.
Among PN voters, Grech led Delia by a long shot, with 57 per cent saying he is the best man to lead the opposition as opposed to 10 per cent who opted for Delia.
Eight per cent of PN voters said neither of the two were best placed for the job.
When it came to Labour Party voters, 30 per cent said neither Grech nor Delia are suited to the job, while 17 per cent chose Grech and nine per cent went for Delia, another eight per cent indicating they were not interested.
The majority of those who did not vote or refused to indicate whom they voted for in 2017 could not say who was the best of the two, with 50 per cent and 38 per cent responses, respectively.