Asked without any prompting what their present major concerns are, the respondents pointed at the water and electricity surcharge as being their most pressing concern. 61.3% of the adult population spontaneously mentioned this concern as its most pressing one.

This was followed, in turn, by the cost of food items (56%), the increase in the cost of living (47.3%), levels of taxation (24%), followed by non-economic concerns such as illegal immigration (23.3%), dirt in public areas (13.3%), the environment in general (10.3%), and more economic concerns such as the cost of living (7.3%), unemployment (4.3%), the future of the dockyard (3.7%), liberalisation (1.7%), the cost of medicines (1%) and lastly preferences/favouritism which drew only 0.3%.

One must also note, says The Independent on Sunday, that concern about the water and electricity surcharge was higher among females than among men and highest in the 36 to 50 age group and the C2 socio-economic group. It was the same age group that was most concerned about the cost of food items.

The respondents were asked a number of questions but three of them, apart from the open-ended question about their major concerns, were very much linked. They were asked in which sectors the government was perceived as doing well. Once again, responses to this question were not prompted.

The sector about which there was widest spontaneous mention was education, mentioned by 29% of all those taking part, followed by tourism (14%), managing the environment (13.3%), EU relations (11.3%), foreign policy in general (9.7%), social policy (7.7%), the public health sector (4.7%), upkeep of the road/street networks (4.3%), management of the economy (3.0%), and dockyard privatisation (1.3%).

Asked what were the sectors in which the PN government is perceived as not performing well, without prompting, the sector about which the Maltese were most critical of the government’s performance was managing illegal immigration, spontaneously mentioned by 37.7%, followed by managing the environment (27.7%), upkeep of roads/streets (16.3%), controlling the cost of living (14.0%), dockyard privatisation (12%), social policy (7.3%), education (5.7%), public health (3%), management of the economy (3%), the tourism sector (2.7%), reforming public transport, EU relations, foreign policy, curbing drug availability (each at 1%), and lastly controlling the cost of housing (0.7%) and managing energy issues (0.3%).

Following the series of questions that required a spontaneous response, participants in the study were asked to pronounce their judgement on the government’s performance on a series of issues that have arisen since the election.

The government was perceived to have done well on a number of issues but badly on others. An index was created to measure the performance. If all the Maltese were to say that the government was doing well, the result would have been 100 points for each issue. On issues on which it is perceived to have performed badly, the points are obviously low.

It was perceived as having done well on the public transport strike (86.33 points), on dockyard privatisation (70.33 points), rent reform (63.67 points), divorce (63 points) and issues with certain local councils (54 points).

It was perceived as having done badly, and received less than 50 points, on: illegal immigration (four points), cost of fuel (four points), electricity surcharge (seven points), increase in the cost of food products (17.67 points), the environment in general (30.67 points), dirt in roads (34.67 points) liberalisation in general (45.33 points), the amount of drugs in Malta (46 points) and issues with public health services (46.67 points).

This index clearly shows that there is a significant split between what the government is doing and the way the Maltese are evaluating its approach.

On certain issues, such as reacting to the public transport strike, this study gave the seal of approval to the government approach, says The Malta Independent on Sunday but on others, particularly illegal immigration and the cost of living in general, the Maltese seem to point to a failure, in their view, on how the government is tackling these specific issues.

Only 0.3% of the Maltese think the government is performing “very well” while 18% think it is performing well. 41.3% were rather non-committal in that they rated the government’s performance as average. But 27.7% rate the current performance of the government as bad while 12.7% rate the performance as very bad.

The highest numbers of those who feel the government is performing badly are in the 65 and over age group and C2 members. 34.6% of the readers of The Malta Independent on Sunday hold this view compared to 20.5% of readers of The Sunday Times.

Although the survey carried a number of other questions, of particular interest is the question regarding the different political leaders, considering that since the last election two of the three political parties have changed their leaders.

It is equally significant to note that as many as 20% of the total Maltese electorate refused to rate the three leaders in respect of their credibility as individuals.

With the whole population, Dr Joseph Muscat is perceived at 39.3% to be just slightly more credible than Dr Gonzi (39%) although Dr Muscat has only been leader of the Labour Party for just three months.

Interesting differences however creep in when the data is broken down by age: the new MLP leader somewhat surprisingly enjoys more credibility among members of four age groups, but the level of credibility among the youngest segment of the population (16 to 25 years) registered by Dr Gonzi (55.3%) towers over that registered for Dr Muscat (27.7%).

Analysed by gender, Dr Gonzi is perceived to be more credible among males (43.8%) than among females (34.4%) while Dr Muscat is perceived to be more credible among females (42.2%) than by males (36.3%).

Among the socio-economic groups, Dr Gonzi is perceived to be the most credible among the DE members (48.3%) while Dr Muscat is perceived to be most credible among members of the C2 group (53.9%). Dr Gonzi enjoys more credibility among the C1 group (40.8%).

Asked by The Malta Independent on Sunday to give a comment on the general findings of this study, the author of the study Professor Mario Vassallo said, “Given the lack of major issues affecting Maltese society as a whole, the Maltese are measuring up their politicians on issues which affect them more closely. In this regard, they are finding the current performance of the government, which they elected only a few months ago, somewhat disappointing. At the same time they are positively evaluating initiatives that have been taken by the government to tackle long-standing issues such as rent reform.”

“An interesting shift is also taking place in respect of the image of the leaders of the two main parties. The overall image of Dr Joseph Muscat appears to have shifted in his favour since his election to the leadership of the MLP, when he was clearly not the favourite candidate among the Maltese at large. Probably his approach to micro-issues, now perceived to be more important by the Maltese, has contributed to this. The future appears to have very interesting developments in the making,” Professor Vassallo concluded.