CAIRO: Egypt’s President Muhammad Mursi is considering rescheduling parliamentary elections after Coptic Christians complained they would clash with the Easter period, his office said yesterday.
“Today President Mursi said he is seriously considering rescheduling elections to avoid any overlap with Coptic Christian holidays,” the presidency said on its English-language Twitter account.
It did not give details on a possible new schedule for the election.
Many Copts believe Mursi and his allies want to sideline the minority amid persistent rumors — denied by electoral officials — that they had been barred from voting in some polling stations in past elections.
Bishop Morcos, a senior figure in the Coptic Church, said holding the first round on a Christian holiday would “affect the percentage of (Coptic) votes,” the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported.
Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement said it hoped he would change the date of the parliamentary election.
“We’re hoping president would revise the decree and change the dates for this particular phase, let’s put it this way,” the group wrote on its official English-language Twitter account.
Coptic Christians, who comprise up to 10 percent of the country’s 83 million people, have complained of a spike in sectarian attacks since a popular uprising overthrew President Hosni Mubarak in early 2011.
The new People’s Assembly that emerges from the election is expected to convene on July 6, according to the decree.
Meanwhile, top opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei called on yesterday for a boycott of elections, likening the poll to the “sham democracy” of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
“Called for parliamentary election boycott in 2010 to expose sham democracy. Today I repeat my call, will not be part of an act of deception,” the Nobel Laureate wrote on his Twitter account.
Another National Salvation Front (NSF) opposition leader, former foreign minister Amr Mussa, said many members of the opposition coalition were inclined to boycott the four-round election but a final position had not yet been taken.
“There is a large group that wants a boycott, but it has not yet been discussed, and no decision has been taken,” he said.
The election is scheduled to begin on April 27, with a new parliament to convene on July 6.
ElBaradei, who did not elaborate his call on Twitter, raised the suspicion that the vote will be rigged as was the case in a 2010 election under Mubarak.
Leaders of the NSF, a coalition of liberal and secular leaning groups, have previously proposed a postponement of the vote.
Egypt mulls election date change after Copts object
