A survey on Justice Reform Commissioner Franco Debono, commissioned by Debono himself, revealed that 34.4 per cent of respondents believe he is a valid candidate in the Nationalist Party leadership race.

In a surreal move by any standards, Debono chose to commission a survey on himself. The survey indicates how many people believe his proposals for the PN prior to 2013 were valid, and on whether 'people like him' should have the opportunity to carry on with their work in Parliament.

Debono became a household name when he made waves by voting with then Opposition Labour Party on a vote of no confidence in Justice Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici. He then brought the PN government to its knees when he voted against the 2013 Budget, heralding in an election which would see the PN lose by 36,000 votes.

In comments on why he chose to commission such a survey, Debono said:

"I did not participate in any way in the electoral campaign. Immediately after the results came out, many Nationalist Party supporters felt that the result [a massive loss] meant that I [Debono] was right in my criticism and proposals during my time as a PN MP. They spoke to me privately and publically and many called for my return to the party, with some encouraging me to contest the leadership position.

"For this reason I wanted to get a clear picture of the current situation, and I commissioned this survey that in my humble understanding, in the light of the hostility directed towards me by the same party over the last few years, are excellent results and show substantial support by PN voters, despite everything that happened."

The survey was carried out through telephone interviews, with a sample of 450 individuals. The sample was made up of those aged 18 and upwards, and the data was weighted based on age, gender and the electoral spread of location. People were contacted between 19 and 30 June for their responses, shortly after the 4 June snap election.

A 95 per cent confidence level was registered, with a margin of error of +/- 4.6 per cent.

Participants in the survey were actually asked whether they believed that Debono was 'right' (jekk kellu ragun) on his 2012 proposals that were made to the PN before the 2013 election.

Overall, 62.7 per cent think that Debono was right, 26 per cent are undecided and 11.2 per cent disagree with him.

Narrowing down the sample to PN voters in 2013 and/or 2017, 53.3 per cent believe he was right, 21 per cent are unsure while 25.6 per cent disagree.

A whopping 54.2 per cent overall could not recall what the proposals were about, while 29.5 per cent said 'law courts and justice', 9.9 per cent said 'political party financing', and 4.3 per cent said 'the Maltese Constitution'.

Respondents were also asked whether people like Debono should be given further opportunity to work when they were in Parliament, to which 70.8 per cent replied in the affirmative, 21.7 per cent could not say while 7.5 per cent disagreed.

Out of 2013 and/or 2017 PN voters, 73.3 per cent agreed, 11 per cent could not say while 15.7 per cent disagreed with people like Debono being given further opportunity to work while in Parliament.

Another interesting question was whether people believe that the PN's strategy is still being controlled 'by the same individuals' that were controlling it for the past 20 years. Overall, 61.2 per cent believe that the PN's strategy is being controlled by the same people, 21.4 per cent are undecided and 17.4 per cent disagree.

Among 2013 and/or 2017 PN voters, 55.9 per cent agree with the statement, 14.9 per cent could not say and 29.3 per cent disagree.

Debono had commissioned the survey to Vince Marmara, who has also conducted electoral surveys for the Labour Party. Marmara is a statistician, researcher and lecturer at the University of Malta's Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy.