Delegates’ poll finds Bonnici and Cardona in dead heat

An independent survey among party delegates has put Labour ministers Owen Bonnici and Chris Cardona almost neck and neck in Friday’s election for a new deputy leader for party affairs.

The independent poll surveyed 125 delegates, excluding party administration and MPs, from the entire delegates’ total of over 700.

The data shows that the young justice and culture minister, Owen Bonnici, 36, is leading slightly by two points, capturing 17% of support from delegates who answered the question of who they wanted for Labour’s second deputy leader.

15% said they wanted economy minister Chris Cardona, 44, while just 11% said they would go for Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, 43, a former PL president who is now serving as executive chairman of the Grand Harbour Regeneration Corporation.

Labour is seeking a new deputy leader for party affairs after Konrad Mizzi, the former energy minister – revealed to have opened an offshore company in Panama while in office – was told to step down from the party position. Mizzi retained his minister’s position inside the Office of the Prime Minister.

The deputy leadership post was traditionally created for non-MPs, but the Labour leadership’s insistence on having Mizzi as deputy leader led to changes in the party statute and a one-horse race to elect the subsequently disgraced minister.

In the survey, 56% of delegates polled refused to reveal their voting intentions. Extrapolating the result without these non-responsive delegates, Bonnici would have the support of 39.2% of delegates, Cardona 35.3% and Zrinzo Azzopardi 25.5%.

Male delegates overwhelmingly favour Cardona and Bonnici (47%), while only 6% of such delegates favoured Zrinzo Azzopardi. Instead the latter took the support of 35% of female candidates, as did Bonnici, while fewer, 29%, said they would support Cardona.

The data, if indicative of the general mood, is a sign that Labour delegates on Friday will not return a new deputy leader for Joseph Muscat and instead will see a two-way race opening up on Saturday.

Delegates will vote on Thursday and Friday, and again on Saturday for a run-off.

Bonnici strong with ‘youth’ vote

When it came to age groups, Cardona enjoyed the support of 43% on average of the 18-40, 41-55, and 56-65 age groups.

Bonnici on the other hand enjoys the support of 50% of the 66+ age group as well as 53% of the 18-40 age group.

Zrinzo Azzopardi  scored the least (6%) with the 18-40 group and was mainly popular with the 56-65 (46%) and 66+ delegates (35%).

Both Cardona and Bonnici were also considered to be “good for the position”, according to value statements they gave to their interviewer. Other positive attributes for Bonnici included “young”, “charismatic” and “calm”; while Cardona was seen as “a man of his word”, “mature” and “loyal”. Zrinzo Azzopardi was preferred for his non-ministerial role, experience as PL president, and as a “man of the people”.

Overall, the 125 delegates polled displayed an inward-looking view of how they see the deputy leadership election: the top three aims for a new deputy leader were deemed to be strictly partisan related. 18.5% said the new deputy leader had to “redress injustices” – a reference related to claims of Labourite workers and businesses having suffered some form of injustice under former Nationalist administrations; 14% said the new leader should “take care of Labourites”; and 13% said he should seek party unity and improve communication with the local clubs; another 10% said they had to be “close to the people”.

Even when asked about their concerns, the delegates showed themselves to be unquestionably loyal not to point out anything adverse: 76% responded that they had no serious concerns about the state of the country.

But 9.4% said they felt that “a negative Opposition” was the country’s major issue, and 2.5% individually listed illegal immigration, traffic and the Panama Papers, as the issues they deemed most serious right now.

85% said they valued their quality of life today as much better than it was in 2013, when the Nationalist Party was last in government, while 11.2% said they were worse off.