Gulf Daily News – 17 August 2006
By Kanwal Tariq Hameed
A BAHRAIN human rights group is calling for an independent and “credible” body to be formed to supervise parliamentary and municipal elections later this year.
Several issues, including the lack of a “neutral” supervisory body and “geographically distorted” electoral districts could lead to distrust among the population, says the now-dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR).
The BCHR is also calling for a redistribution of electoral districts, reformation of the 2002 Constitution to allow parliament “full jurisdiction in legislation and supervision” and for local and international bodies to be permitted to monitor elections.
Gulf Daily News – 17 August 2006
By Kanwal Tariq HameedA BAHRAIN human rights group is calling for an independent and “credible” body to be formed to supervise parliamentary and municipal elections later this year.
Several issues, including the lack of a “neutral” supervisory body and “geographically distorted” electoral districts could lead to distrust among the population, says the now-dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR).
The BCHR is also calling for a redistribution of electoral districts, reformation of the 2002 Constitution to allow parliament “full jurisdiction in legislation and supervision” and for local and international bodies to be permitted to monitor elections.
It is also calling for more information over allegations that a large number of recently naturalised citizens from Syria, Yemen and Jordan working in military and security jobx will be permitted to vote without actually having lived in the country for 10 years, as law requires.
“The BCHR calls upon national and international bodies and organisations to carry out a more efficient role in forming an independent, credible body to supervise the elections and permitting independent and effective local and external monitoring of the election,” said centre vice-president Nabeel Rajab.
Activists should also work for “adjusting the situation of the gerrymandered electoral districts to achieve the most possible equality between the citizens and permitting the reformation of the 2002 constitution, whereby the representatives of the people are given full jurisdiction in legislation and supervision,” he said.
Current policies, laws and procedures “contradict international norms and standards related to democracy, transparency and human rights,” the BCHR says in a report on local elections.
The recent gatherings and anti-terror laws ratified after being passed by Parliament and the Shura Council could be used retroactively to prohibit activists and dissidents, who have served jail sentences, from participating in elections, it says.
“The two councils have also passed a law, put forth by the government, which deprives anyone who has been sentenced to a prison term of six months to three years from his or her political rights for 10 years,” says the report.
“It also deprives, for life, all citizens who receive a sentence of three years or more, from their right to run in the general elections.
“Taking into consideration the laws that punish people for the practice of basic rights and freedoms, the aforementioned law permits the government to pursue human rights and political activists by depriving them of their political rights, especially given that the judiciary is still under the government’s control.
“If it is decided that this law shall be carried out with retroactive effect then the government will be able to deprive most of the human right and political activists of their political rights, because of verdicts that have been pronounced against them in the past.”
Scrutiny of the electoral process has so far been carried out by internal supervision, which “lacks capacity and experience”, rather than an independent panel that could guarantee independence and integrity, says the BCHR.
Residents in the Bahrain’s southern district are given 33 times more electoral power than those voting in the northern district, because of “geographically distorted” electoral districts, according to the report.
It says Parliament is robbed of some powers because the un-elected Shura Council is granted equal legislative power to it.
Parliament is also prohibited from calling senior government officials to account and investigating corruption and transgression cases predating the beginning of Parliament’s session in December 2002.
A decree allowing and estimated more than 20,000 recently naturalised citizens from Syria, Yemen and Jordan who work in security and military jobs to participate in elections could skew local elections, say the BCHR.
“This number can change the election’s results, considering that the electorate in Bahrain does not exceed 180,000 votes, which is already divided according to ethnic, sectarian and political lines,” it says
Information on those “extraordinarily granted nationality” inside or outside Bahrain should be provided, and the legitimacy of their participation in the elections reviewed, it said.
The report also raises concerns about the reliability of electronic voting. Bahrain’s largest opposition group Al Wefaq National Islamic Society, who announced a campaign against e-voting earlier, will be holding a conference on the topic next Wednesday.