CAIRO (NNN-QNA) -- Former Arab League chief AmIr Moussa was backed by 31.5 per cent of potential voters, well above other Egyptian presidential candidates, according to results of a poll by a state-run think tank.
Salafist candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail came second with 22.7 per cent, according to results of the survey conducted by the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies published Monday.
The poll was conducted last month in anticipation of the May 23-24 elections, when Egyptian voters are expected to choose the country's first president after Hosni Mubarak was forced out of power in February 2011.
Former commander of the Egyptian Air Force Ahmed Shafiq, who was a long-time minister in Mubarak's government and was appointed as a prime minister during the ex-president's final days, ranked in third place with 10.2 per cent.
The survey was undertaken before the country's most organized political group, the Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party, decided to field the group's second-man Khairat al-Shater for the presidential elections.
Omar Suleiman, Mubarak's deputy and former head of General Intelligence, came fourth at 9.3 per cent, while Islamist candidate Abdul-Moneim Abul-Fotouh, came in fifth place on 8.3 per cent.
Around 20 per cent of the people polled have yet to decide on their preferred candidate.
Voters favour a candidate with prior political and administrative experience at 56.2 per cent, while 26.7 per cent preferred a candidate from a military background and 17.2 per cent opted for a candidate with a history of opposition to the Mubarak regime.
As for political orientation, the majority, at 57.6 per cent, stated that they would prefer an Islamist candidate.
Islamists have dominated the two houses of parliament in the elections held earlier this year as well as the recently formed panel tasked with drafting the country's new constitution. -- NNN-QNA
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