Opinion poll shows president continues to lose voters' confidence in urban areas and among youth but still enjoys sizeable support in poorer, rural areas; Egyptians split on Morsi's handling of political instability The Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research, El-Baseera, revealed that 44 per cent of respondents in a recent opinion poll said they are not willing to re-elect President Mohamed Morsi for a second term. The results of the poll, which was conducted in late-January, show the highest level of voter disapproval of the performance of President Morsi since he came to power in June 2012. Meanwhile, the number of those who said they would re-elect Morsi fell from 50 per cent in December to 39 per cent according to the poll. The poll also showed the president's approval rating has dropped by 10 percentage points in recent weeks, from 63 per cent in December to 53 per cent in January. El-Baseera's survey also showed that youths are less satisfied with the president's performance compared to older age groups. The survey also revealed that only 33 per cent of Egyptians with university or higher education approve of the president's performance compared to 56 per cent of those with less than intermediate education. Morsi's approval rating at a low 36 per cent in urban governorates stands compared to higher ratings in rural areas - 64 per cent in Upper Egypt and 52 per cent in the Delta. Maged Osman, the general director of Baseera, said that the poll found that from December to January the percentage of those who approve of the president's performance has declined from 40 to 34 per cent, while the percentage of those who strongly approve has also declined from 23 to 19 per cent. 72 per cent of participants in the survey said they had watched or heard President Morsi's late-January speech declaring a state of emergency in the tree main Suez Canal cities (Ismailia, Suez and Port Said) following bloody clashes between protesters and the police in the area which left tens dead. 48 per cent of respondents believed that the president's declaration of state of emergency in the Suez Canal cities was an appropriate measure to deal with an unstable situation, while 49 per cent believed it was inappropriate. The government was unable to enforce his state-of-emergency decision as tens of thousands of residents in the canal cities held protests during curfew hours in defiance of his decree. Osman said that the poll was conducted in telephone interviews with 2,303 citizens above the age of 18. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/64449.aspx
