A survey conducted by misco International Limited showed that abortion has a strong impact on voting preference, with 58% stating they will not vote for a political party that proposes to introduce abortion.
Of these respondents, one third stated that they would actually vote for another party and another one third stated that they would not vote. The other one third said that they would simply not vote for this party. The objective of the survey was to assess the potential impact of the abortion issue on voting behaviour.
The impact was also reflected on a candidate basis, with 53% of respondents stating that they would prefer to vote for candidates who are against the introduction of abortion in Malta. In contrast, only 19% stated that they would prefer to vote for candidates who are in favour of abortion, and for 28% it does not make any difference.
Contextually, 59% of all respondents believe that the law presented in Parliament about the interruption of pregnancy will effectively introduce abortion in Malta. This is also reflected by the finding that 28% agree with the government’s current abortion proposal, whilst 55% disagree, most notable as one moves up the age scale and amongst those with a higher standard of education.
The larger share of respondents, 38%, said that they would not vote for the party they normally prefer to vote for if it is proposing to introduce abortion, with 20% saying they would not vote. Conversely, only one in five respondents said that if the party they prefer to vote for proposes to introduce abortion in Malta, they would vote for it. 23% stated that it would not make any difference.
When asked about the party with a stand against abortion, 48% stated that they would vote for it in contrast to the 20% who stated that they would not vote for it. Whilst 23% stated that it would not make any difference on their voting preference, another 9% stating that they would not vote.
Technical Note: The survey was carried among 526 respondents who form part of with misco’s proprietary online panel between the 8th and 13th March 2023. Participants in misco’s online panel are selected through random probability sampling.
