MaltaToday Survey | Fearne, Borg retain top spots in ministerial ranking survey

Chris Fearne and Ian Borg have retained the top two spots as the best performing ministers, a MaltaToday survey has found. 

The Deputy Prime Minister and health minister obtained a rating of 25.2% in a survey carried out in the first week of February, while the Infrastructure Minister placed second with 16%. 

In a similar survey last October, the pair also placed first and second respectively with Fearne scoring 27.9% and Borg 11%. 

Both ministers have the highest visibility in government. Fearne has captained the administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while Borg is responsible for the largest-ever roads overhaul. 

Since October, Borg’s score increased five points, possibly a reflection of voter appreciation for major road projects that are coming to fruition. 

Fearne ranks top among people who vote for the Nationalist Party and second among Labour Party voters. He was voted as best performer by 25.2% of PN voters and 27% of PL voters. 

Borg ranks first among PL voters, with 28.6%, and only just makes the top five among PN voters with 2%. 

Overall, Fearne retains top spot across all ages and all regions, bar the Western region, where Borg is considered to be the best performer. The Western region comprises the localities that form part of the electoral districts where Borg contests. 

Newcomer Miriam Dalli, who was co-opted to parliament last October and subsequently made energy minister in a Cabinet reshuffle a month later, comes in third in the overall rankings with 2.6%. 

It appears Robert Abela’s gamble to bring Dalli back home from the European Parliament and co-opt her to parliament has paid off with the wider electorate. 

Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo and Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri, complete the top five spots with 2.3% and 2.1% respectively. 

Bartolo placed third place in the survey carried out last October. This is Camilleri’s first appearance in the top five spots. 

A breakdown of results by political allegiance shows that Nationalist voters rank Fearne in the top spot, followed by Bartolo with 4.8%. The pair also placed in the top two spots for PN voters last October. 

Miriam Dalli comes in third among PN voters with 2.9%, followed by Education Minister Justyne Caruana (2.2%) and Ian Borg (2%). 

Caruana was made minister again last November after having resigned in January 2020 because of controversy surrounding her ex-husband’s connection with murder suspect Yorgen Fenech. 

Among Labour voters, Borg improves over his performance last October and pips Fearne to the top spot. 

Byron Camilleri ranks third with 4.6%, followed by newcomer Clyde Caruana with 2.9%. 

It appears PL voters have quickly warmed up to Caruana who was co-opted to parliament in October last year and subsequently made finance minister. He was formerly chief of staff to Prime Minister Robert Abela. 

Justyne Caruana placed fifth among Labour voters with 2.7%. 

Methodology 

The survey was carried out between Monday 1 February 2021 and Friday 5 February 2021. 649 respondents opted to complete the survey. Stratified random sampling based on region, age and gender was used to replicate the Maltese demographic. The estimated margin of error is 4.9% for a confidence interval of 95% for the overall results. Demographic and sub-group breakdowns have significantly larger margins of error.