MaltaToday Survey | Delia suffers trust deficit among PN voters

Adrian Delia starts his tenure as Nationalist Party leader facing an uphill struggle to convince his own supporters to trust him, a MaltaToday survey has found.

Delia trails Prime Minister Joseph Muscat by 29 percentage points in the first trust rating barometer since taking the PN’s top post last month.

But Delia’s bigger problem may rest with those who voted PN at the last election, where 41% trust neither of the two leaders, or are uncertain of their choice.

The PN leader only manages a trust rating of 54% among PN voters and 22% nationally.

This contrasts sharply with Muscat’s trust rating, which runs at 92% among Labour Party voters in the last election and 51% nationally.

The telephone survey among 506 randomly-selected people was done between October 2 and 5, the same week the PN leader was sworn in as MP and subsequently Opposition leader.

Delia, a political outsider, beat MP Chris Said in a runoff election among PN members to claim the party leadership.

The contest to replace Simon Busuttil, who resigned after June’s electoral defeat, was acrimonious as Delia faced allegations of impropriety.

The aftermath sees the PN in tatters and Delia trying to convince his party he is their best chance to win the next election.

But at this stage, even this appears to be a remote possibility. The MaltaToday survey found the PN trailing the PL by 25 points if an election were to be held now.

Read the full survey in MaltaToday's digital edition