The Labour Party will see its support rise by 1.6 percent and will win half the votes in the European Parliament election on Saturday, according to a European Parliament election forecast.

The election prediction model by international communications consultancy firm Burson-Marsteller shows the PL at 50% of the vote, up from 48.4 percent in the 2004 poll.

The Nationalist Party is at 38 percent, down 1.8 percent from 2004.

The PL will retain its three EP seats and the PN will retain its two.

AD are predicted to win 6.4 percent of the vote, down three points from last time, while Azzjoni Nazzjonali will win 4.9 percent.

The same survey in April had seen the Labour Party at 51 percent.

The predictions are based on a scientific model developed by researchers from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Dublin's Trinity College.

The model factors in the share of votes won by each national party in all the previous EP elections since 1979 and opinion polls modified by information about vote shares in the previous national election. It also takes into consideration whether a party is in government, whether a national party is anti-European and whether the European election is held within a year of a previous national election.