The Nationalist Party is just one point ahead of the Labour Party, MaltaToday's post budget survey shows.
The results, published today, see the PL reducing the PN's lead from 11,699 votes in September to just 2,647 votes now.
In today's survey, the PN scores 46.3%, a two-point drop since September, while the PL gains 1.5 points and sees its support climb to 45.3% from 43.8%.
The one-point difference between the two main parties falls squarely within the survey's margin of error, which technically means that either party could be in the lead at the present juncture, MaltaToday reports.
Support for ADPD dropped slightly from 4.5% to 4.1% while that for other parties or independents has increased from 3.5% to 4.2%.
The shift towards the PN is mostly attributable to a higher abstention rate among past Labour voters, the survey shows.
The survey results show that if a general election were to be held now, the turnout would be 70.6% down from 75.7% in September. This suggests that despite the budget hype and the heightened political temperature following the latest scandal involving an ethics breach by two Cabinet ministers, more people have switched off from politics in the past weeks.
Compared to the 2022 general election, the survey suggests that the PL has lost a staggering 49,145 votes, which are now mostly parked in the non-voters camp. However, the PN has only lost 7,024 votes while non-voters have increased by a staggering 53,478.
A comparison with vote tallies from the June MEP election shows the PL losing 4,243 votes. In contrast, the PN gains 6,858 votes.
Respondents to the survey have given the budget a mean score of 3 points out of a maximum of 5.
The budget rating ranged from 2.4 among current PN voters to 3.9 among current Labour voters. Significantly, current non-voters have given the budget a rating of 2.8 out of 5.
The survey started a week after Clyde Caruana delivered the budget and coincided with the budget reaction speeches given by Opposition leader Bernard Grech and Prime Minister Robert Abela.