Poll shows PN trailing well behind Labour

The Nationalist Party is trailing Labour by over 10 percentage points, according to a poll conducted for the TV chat show Xarabank.

Were an election to be held now, the MLP would obtain 51.2 per cent of the votes with the PN winning 40.4 per cent, Alternattiva Demokratika 6.8 per cent and other parties polling 1.6 per cent of the votes.

The results of the poll will be discussed on Xarabank this evening when the sole guest will be Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.

Dr Gonzi will go to the programme straight from the airport on his arrival from Rome where he is scheduled to join other EU member states' leaders to sign the European constitutional treaty.

The poll also shows that close to 38 per cent of respondents said they trusted Dr Gonzi as a leader while close to 30 per cent said they trusted Labour leader Alfred Sant. Close to 28 per cent said they trusted none of them.

Over 12 per cent of those who declared they had voted PN in the last election said they would vote for the MLP at the next election.

The survey also gauged several other issues, including support/dissatisfaction with EU membership, the country's economic situation and what people perceive as the most pressing problems.