Mohamed El Baradei calls for Egypt election boycott

Liberal opposition leader dubs April parliamentary elections "an act of deception" amid division in opposition ranks, Al Jazeera reported.

Mohamed El Baradei, the Egyptian liberal opposition politician, has called for a boycott of parliamentary elections which start in April, saying he refused to take part in "an act of deception".

President Mohamed Morsi brought forward the start of the country's parliamentary elections on Saturday, aiming to conclude Egypt's turbulent transition to democracy which began with the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak by popular protests in February 2011.

The first round of voting in Cairo and four other provinces will now be held on 22 April, rather than 27 April.

Members of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority had criticised the planned timing of the elections because some voting would take place during their Easter holiday.

"Today I repeat my call, [I] will not be part of an act of deception," El Baradei, a former UN nuclear agency chief and a Nobel Laureate, said on his Twitter account.

El Baradei said that he had called in 2010 for a similar boycott of polls held under Mubarak, who was toppled the following year.