Egyptian liberal party to boycott elections Naguib Sawiris is facing a trial for insulting religion after tweeting a caricature of Mickey Mouse in Islamic dress. Photograph: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty The liberal Egyptian party co-founded by Egypt's wealthiest businessman, mobile phone and media tycoon Naguib Sawiris, has announced it will boycott elections to the upper house claiming "hundreds" of violations by the Islamist parties who have dominated voting thus far. The move comes as Egyptians begin the final round of voting on Tuesday for elections to Egypt's lower house which will nominate the key body to write the country's new constitution. The latest round of voting - the third since November - is expected to confirm the electoral domination of Egypt's new political landscape by the Muslim Brotherhood and the ultra-conservative Salafist parties, who together look likely to win just over 60% of votes. The boycott threat was delivered as Sawiris, a Coptic Christian from the country's wealthiest family, was told he faces trial for blasphemy over an online cartoon he tweeted from his account last June depicting Mickey Mouse with an Islamic beard and a veiled Minnie Mouse. Sawiris quickly apologised, tweeting: "I apologise for any who don't take this as a joke. I just thought it was a funny picture. No disrespect meant! But a legal case against him was launched by Mahmoud Ismail, a lawyer who heads one of the main Salafist parties, using a "contempt of religion" law dating back to before the Hosni Mubarak era. If convicted, Sawiris could face a jail sentence of up to a year. The last round of elections take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, including reruns of voting in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities where the vote was cancelled in the first round due to irregularities. Egypt's staggered three-stage parliamentary election began on 28 November and has attracted an unprecedented turnout. Elections to the advisory upper chamber, or Shura council, begin at the end of January and continue into February. It is elections to this chamber that Sawiris's Free Egyptians party (FEP) is threatening to boycott. The Shura council has no significant legislative role, unlike the lower house which will draw up new laws and select the assembly that will draw up the country's new constitution. Some Egyptians activists have complained that the advisory Shura council risks slowing Egypt's democratic transformation, a point specifically addressed in a statement issued by the FEP threatening its boycott. On present figures, the FEP is expected to win about 10% of the vote in contrast to the Muslim Brotherhood's 41%, with the Salafist Al Nour party expected to take 20% of votes. Complaining of up to 500 cases of electoral irregularities in previous rounds of voting, which independent monitors have generally suggested were minor and with little impact on the final outcome, the party added it could not be sure that similar violations might not take place in elections for the Shura council. "The process turned into a religious competition rather than an electoral one ..." the FEP said in a statement, adding that the results did not accurately express the will of Egyptians. We filed more than 500 complaints but no legal action was taken to resist it ... which will exacerbate violations during the Shura council election as violators are awarded with electoral gains and those abiding by the laws are punished. It also condemned the wider conduct of the election by the main Islamist parties. The FEP's withdrawal could be a major blow to the Egyptian bloc, an alliance of liberal and leftist groups of which it is a key member. The Egyptian bloc is expected to win at least 9% of seats in the lower house, where Islamists so far claim at least 60%. The FEP called on other parties to join it in boycotting the Shura council election and it was not immediately clear whether the Egyptian bloc would run without one of its main parties. The latest moves - both in the court case and in the threatened boycott - reflect a growing friction between Sawiris and his opponents in the Islamist parties. Sawiris has been one of the most prominent critics of calls from the Islamist bloc that the new constitution rely heavily on sharia law. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party has accused Sawiris of using his media empire to mount a disinformation campaign against them.