Poll: Egyptian MB’s Support doubles

Support for the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate almost doubled in an opinion poll published in Al- Ahram newspaper two weeks before Egypt’s presidential election, while the two longstanding front-runners ceded ground.

Mohamed Mursi, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, rose to fourth place with 7 percent, according to the weekly poll conducted by the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. It interviewed 1,200 people between April 27 and May 1, and cited a margin of error of three percentage points.

Former Arab League chief Amr Moussa slipped to 39 percent from 41 percent a week before, and second-placed Abdel-Moneim Aboul Fotouh, an Islamist who parted ways with the Brotherhood earlier in the year, fell 3 percentage points to 24 percent. Ahmed Shafik, prime minister in the waning days of Hosni Mubarak’s government, jumped to 17 percent from 12 percent.