Just over half, or 51.2 per cent, of respondents to a survey carried out by Malta Polls on behalf of the television programme Xarabank said they were affected negatively or very negatively by the budget for 2006.

A quarter, 25.2 per cent, said they were neither affected positively nor negatively, and 5.7 per cent said they were not affected by the budget.

A mere 10.5 per cent said the effect of the budget was positive or very positive and 7.5 per cent were undecided.

In a bid to tackle the increase in the surcharge on utility bills, 63.5 per cent of those asked said they planned to reduce electricity consumption and 5.1 per cent said they would economise; 6.7 per cent said they planned to do nothing in particular and 3.7 per cent were undecided. Just 2.8 per cent said they would work part-time and two per cent said they would work overtime to make up for the increase. Asked how they would vote if a general election were held on that day, 27 per cent said they would vote MLP, 21.3 per cent would not vote and 19.3 per cent would vote PN. A total of 16.5 per cent said they were undecided and 11.8 per cent refused to answer the question.

The political party that has lost most of its support over the past two years is the PN, with only 50.9 per cent of 2003 Nationalist voters saying they would vote for the party again.

Asked whom they trusted as the country's leader, 31.9 per cent did not mention any of the political parties' leaders, while 29 per cent said they trusted PN leader Lawrence Gonzi and 25.6 per cent MLP leader Alfred Sant. The proportion of those undecided amounted to 11.4 per cent and 1.4 per cent mentioned Alternattiva Demokratika's chairman Harry Vassallo.