Surveys carried out by Times of Malta and MaltaToday, both published Sunday, show the Labour Party losing more votes.

Both were held at a time when the country is up-in-arms about continuous power cuts, and while the government continues to be under pressure because of the way it tackled the call for an inquiry into the death of Jean Paul Sofia.

But while The Times survey shows Labour still very much in the lead, and that it would still win the election, for the first time in 15 years the Malta Today survey shows the Nationalist Party in the lead by a small margin.

Labour would win an election by just under 18,000 votes if one were to take place tomorrow, the slimmest lead the party has experienced in years, according to a new Times of Malta survey.

The survey reveals that PL has continued to shed voters, registering a decrease of 1.3% over the past four months and almost 5% since last year’s general election.

Meanwhile, PN has failed to gain any significant ground, only recording minimal gains since the last Times of Malta survey in March and increasing its share of the vote by less than 2% since the election.

On the other hand, the Nationalist Party has overtaken the Labour Party for the first time since 2008, a MaltaToday survey conducted over the past tumultuous two weeks shows.

Support for the PN stands at 30.2%, an increase of 1.5 points over the last survey held in May, while the PL scores 29.6%, a decline of 3.5 points. The PL scores its worst result ever.

The PN advantage is less than a percentage point, a result which falls squarely within the margin of error of the survey but which represents a sharp reversal of fortunes from February when the PL led by 16 points.

The PN had never overtaken Labour in any MaltaToday survey held since the 2008 general election.