Egypt mulls election date change after Copts object

Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi is considering rescheduling parliamentary elections after Coptic Christians complained they would clash with the Easter period, his office said on Saturday.

"Today President Morsi 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, which will replace an Islamist-dominated parliament dissolved by a court on a technicality before Islamist Morsi was elected in June.

Morsi issued a decree on Thursday to begin the four-round election on April 27 and 28, the dates of Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, two important days in the church's pre-Easter calendar

The following Sunday -- May 5 -- is when the runoff for the first round would be held and is Easter Day for the Copts.

Many Copts believe Morsi and his Islamist allies want to sideline the minority amid persistent rumours -- 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.

Morsi'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.