Egypt opposition leader calls for election boycott
Source: AP-Excite
By AYA BATRAWY and AMIR MAKAR
CAIRO (AP) - Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei called Saturday for a boycott of parliamentary elections, drawing immediate criticism from some within his movement who said it was a hasty decision.
The dispute showed the fragility of a fairly new opposition front forged after the deeply fragmented movement found little success at the polls since it led the 2011 uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Opposition infighting would only help ensure that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group remains Egypt's dominant political force after the next vote.
"
I) 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," Nobel laureate ElBaradei, who leads the opposition National Salvation Front (NSF), wrote on his Twitter account.
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In this Saturday, Nov. 24, 2013 file photo, leading democracy advocate Mohammed ElBaradei speaks to a handful of journalists including the Associated Press, at his home on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. Mohamed ElBaradei, who leads the main opposition National Salvation Front, wrote on Twitter Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 that he is calling for the boycott "to expose sham democracy," as he said he did in a similar call in 2010 under then-president Hosni Mubarak. ElBaradei says he urges the boycott of the vote called by Islamist President Mohammed Morsi because he "will not be part of an act of deception."
AP Photo/Thomas Hartwell, File)
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