An opinion poll published Sunday said the percentage of Egyptians who approve of President Mohamed Morsy’s job performance declined to 47 percent, while 37 percent would vote for him if presidential elections were held tomorrow.
The poll, conducted by the Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research (Baseera), shows that the support for Morsy’s performance nine months after he took office went down to 47 percent, compared with 49 percent at the end of his first eight months in office.
The percentage of those who said they did not approve of Morsy’s performance went up to 45 percent, compared with 43 percent last month. Eight percent said they could not judge his performance.
The center asked those who said they would not vote for Morsy again about who they would elect instead. Two-thirds of those asked could not name someone.
Of the rest, 8 percent said they would vote for former President Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq; 3 percent said Popular Current movement head Hamdeen Sabbahi; 3 percent said the defense minister or anyone from the army; 2 percent said Strong Egypt Party head and moderate Islamist Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh; 1 percent said former presidential candidate and Mubarak-era official Amr Moussa; and 1 percent said liberal Dostour Party head Mohamed ElBaradei.
Another 1 percent said they wanted Mubarak to return to office.
The results also showed that almost one-third of respondents had not heard about the National Salvation Front, the country’s largest opposition coalition. Only 30 percent said they know and support the NSF, while 60 percent said they did not, in addition to 10 percent who said they were not sure whether they supported it.
The poll also addressed the recent court decision to reinstate former Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud and cancel the appointment of the current chief prosecutor, Talaat Abdallah. Morsy had dismissed Mahmoud and replaced him with Abdallah as part of a constitutional declaration he made last year.
Thirty-nine percent of participants had not heard about the appeal court’s decision to reinstate Mahmoud. Forty-one percent said they thought the best solution would be for the Supreme Judicial Council to nominate three people, after which Morsy would then choose one as prosecutor general, as the Constitution stipulates.
Eighteen percent said they thought Mahmoud should be allowed to return to his post, while the rest of the respondents said they did not know what the best solution for the issue was.
The poll was conducted using landlines and mobile phones on with a sample size of 2,202 respondents ages 18 or older nationwide. Interviews were conducted on 27 and 28 March. According to Baseera, the poll’s margin of error for the results was less than 3 percent.
