Facebook divorce poll draws significant ‘yes’

More than 65 per cent of Maltese Facebook users are in favour of divorce, according to a poll signed by over 13,000 people in a few days.

The poll makes use of the social network’s latest application called Facebook Questions, were people can post a question for the rest of the community to answer.

On Friday, local Facebook user Stephen Facciol asked whether people were in favour or against divorce in Malta, giving people the added options of “undecided” and “not interested”.

By the time of writing more than 8,600 users said they were in favour of divorce while just over 3,300 said they were against. More than 700 said they were undecided while just over 500 said they were not interested.

Compared to scientific surveys carried out in the past few months, the yes vote is high. But as some of the respondents pointed out during their online exchanges, this is more representative of Maltese Facebook users than the Maltese population as a whole.

The most recent survey by The Sunday Times showed that 58 per cent of people would vote in favour of divorce but only if they were asked about a specific divorce law which allows divorce only after four years of separation.

Without this caveat, support for divorce drops significantly to a relative majority of 43 per cent, while the percentage of “undecided” grows significantly.

Facebook attracts an internet savvy group of mostly young people. Scientific surveys have shown that divorce legislation is more popular with younger people than the older more traditional generation.

Facebook is proving to be a good platform for discussion and campaigning, with several groups being created by both sides of the debate where opinions and information can be exchanged.