Allegations of treason, vote-rigging warn of sectarian strife ahead of Bahrain elections
The Associated Press
Published: October 2, 2006
CAIRO, Egypt They’re calling it Bandargate: a tale of alleged vote-rigging, secret government alliances, charges of bias in electronic balloting and a lone whistleblower.
When a former consultant to Bahrain’s government accused Sunni rulers of plotting to rig an upcoming vote, he was charged with treason and expelled from the country — but also became a cause celebre in the region’s widening Shiite-Sunni divide.
Salah al-Bandar, a British citizen of Sudanese origin and a Sunni Muslim, worked for Bahrain’s cabinet affairs minister and the government statistics agency before fingering top government officials in a secret plot to “deprive an essential part of the population” — Shiites — of their rights.
Allegations of treason, vote-rigging warn of sectarian strife ahead of Bahrain elections
The Associated Press
Published: October 2, 2006
CAIRO, Egypt They’re calling it Bandargate: a tale of alleged vote-rigging, secret government alliances, charges of bias in electronic balloting and a lone whistleblower.
When a former consultant to Bahrain’s government accused Sunni rulers of plotting to rig an upcoming vote, he was charged with treason and expelled from the country — but also became a cause celebre in the region’s widening Shiite-Sunni divide.
Salah al-Bandar, a British citizen of Sudanese origin and a Sunni Muslim, worked for Bahrain’s cabinet affairs minister and the government statistics agency before fingering top government officials in a secret plot to “deprive an essential part of the population” — Shiites — of their rights.
Al-Bandar issued a bundle of documents to back up his allegations — including a memo by a top Sunni academic from Iraq calling for Shiites to be “cleansed” from Bahrain and bank statements showing large sums of money being transferred from government coffers to anti-Shiite figures.
“Individuals were selected by the cabinet affairs minister for the purpose of disenfranchising the Shiites and removing them from all circles of influence in all government departments,” al-Bandar told the Al-Wasat newspaper.
Bahrain, a tiny Persian Gulf kingdom which hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, has a population of 725,000 and is about 60 percent Shiite. But its government is dominated by a Sunni ruling family — the only country in the world where a Sunni minority rules over a Shiite majority, since the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime in Baghdad in 2003.
Sectarian tension boiled over here in the 1990s, when liberal dissidents joined Shiites in staging a series of violent protests that contributed to wider social unrest and the deaths of 40 people.
In a region where election-rigging is common but rarely talked about under authoritarian regimes, the scandal has made surprising waves in a country that has had only one parliamentary election in the past 30 years.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets west of Bahrain’s capital, Manama, on Friday to urge the government to stop granting citizenship to migrants ahead of November elections. A small group of youths clashed with riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets, and at least two people were injured.
Amnesty International and other human rights groups have criticized recent government restrictions on free speech and public gatherings as violations of international law.
Opposition parties accuse the government of doling out citizenship and voting rights to migrants from other Arab countries as well as Pakistan, Bangladesh and India to dilute the power of the Shiite majority.
Interior Minister Sheik Rashid bin Abdulla al-Khalifa says naturalization has not been accelerated, and that 5,000 immigrants have been granted citizenship since 2004. But independent research done by the Al-Wasat said that more than 30,000 were granted citizenship since 2002, at a rate of 7,500 per year.
At the same time, some Sunnis accuse shadowy “Iranian agents” of buying property in contested electoral districts to tilt the ethnic balance in favor of their Bahraini Shiite brethren. State-run newspapers reported that Prime Minister Sheik Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa foiled the plan by freezing real estate deals, and some Sunnis distributed pamphlets calling for Bahrainis of Iranian descent to be deported.
Adherents of both sects accuse the other of fanning the flames of discontent.
“Sectarians want to gain ground ahead of the election by agitating one section of society against another,” said Mohammed al-Shehabi, who heads the National Ikhaa Society, a Shiite party comprised of Bahrainis of Iranian descent.
Elections were originally scheduled for May, then postponed indefinitely until a Friday announcement that polls would take place Nov. 25. Candidates will be able to register next month, the state news agency reported.
Bandargate is the most publicized in a series of stumbles ahead of the elections. Bahrain has been awash in claims of gerrymandering between parties allied with the ruling Sunni elite and those led by the country’s Shiite majority.
It comes at a time of growing violence between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq, on the heels of Shiites’ ascent to power after decades of oppression under Saddam, a Sunni.
Many of Bahrain’s Shiites also feel strengthened by the Shiite guerrilla group Hezbollah’s summertime war with Israel and are putting more pressure on a government they say has either blocked or stalled on their demands.
But many Sunnis in Bahrain fear that giving Shiites an equal say in governance would mean losing their own grasp on power and oppose the entry into national elections of the Shiite Al-Wefaq Society, which boycotted the 2002 elections but decided this year to field candidates. Some observers believe Al-Wefaq will gain as many as 14 of the 40 parliamentary seats.
Al-Wefaq and other Shiite groups seek democratic reform and equal rights for Shiites, who are divided on whether to pursue change through the electoral process or through demonstrations.
Elections in 2002 were Bahrain’s first since 1975, when former ruler Sheikh Isa Bin Salman Al Khalifa suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament.
(str-lf-aj)
CAIRO, Egypt They’re calling it Bandargate: a tale of alleged vote-rigging, secret government alliances, charges of bias in electronic balloting and a lone whistleblower.
When a former consultant to Bahrain’s government accused Sunni rulers of plotting to rig an upcoming vote, he was charged with treason and expelled from the country — but also became a cause celebre in the region’s widening Shiite-Sunni divide.
Salah al-Bandar, a British citizen of Sudanese origin and a Sunni Muslim, worked for Bahrain’s cabinet affairs minister and the government statistics agency before fingering top government officials in a secret plot to “deprive an essential part of the population” — Shiites — of their rights.
Al-Bandar issued a bundle of documents to back up his allegations — including a memo by a top Sunni academic from Iraq calling for Shiites to be “cleansed” from Bahrain and bank statements showing large sums of money being transferred from government coffers to anti-Shiite figures.
“Individuals were selected by the cabinet affairs minister for the purpose of disenfranchising the Shiites and removing them from all circles of influence in all government departments,” al-Bandar told the Al-Wasat newspaper.
Bahrain, a tiny Persian Gulf kingdom which hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, has a population of 725,000 and is about 60 percent Shiite. But its government is dominated by a Sunni ruling family — the only country in the world where a Sunni minority rules over a Shiite majority, since the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime in Baghdad in 2003.
Sectarian tension boiled over here in the 1990s, when liberal dissidents joined Shiites in staging a series of violent protests that contributed to wider social unrest and the deaths of 40 people.
In a region where election-rigging is common but rarely talked about under authoritarian regimes, the scandal has made surprising waves in a country that has had only one parliamentary election in the past 30 years.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets west of Bahrain’s capital, Manama, on Friday to urge the government to stop granting citizenship to migrants ahead of November elections. A small group of youths clashed with riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets, and at least two people were injured.
Amnesty International and other human rights groups have criticized recent government restrictions on free speech and public gatherings as violations of international law.
Opposition parties accuse the government of doling out citizenship and voting rights to migrants from other Arab countries as well as Pakistan, Bangladesh and India to dilute the power of the Shiite majority.
Interior Minister Sheik Rashid bin Abdulla al-Khalifa says naturalization has not been accelerated, and that 5,000 immigrants have been granted citizenship since 2004. But independent research done by the Al-Wasat said that more than 30,000 were granted citizenship since 2002, at a rate of 7,500 per year.
At the same time, some Sunnis accuse shadowy “Iranian agents” of buying property in contested electoral districts to tilt the ethnic balance in favor of their Bahraini Shiite brethren. State-run newspapers reported that Prime Minister Sheik Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa foiled the plan by freezing real estate deals, and some Sunnis distributed pamphlets calling for Bahrainis of Iranian descent to be deported.
Adherents of both sects accuse the other of fanning the flames of discontent.
“Sectarians want to gain ground ahead of the election by agitating one section of society against another,” said Mohammed al-Shehabi, who heads the National Ikhaa Society, a Shiite party comprised of Bahrainis of Iranian descent.
Elections were originally scheduled for May, then postponed indefinitely until a Friday announcement that polls would take place Nov. 25. Candidates will be able to register next month, the state news agency reported.
Bandargate is the most publicized in a series of stumbles ahead of the elections. Bahrain has been awash in claims of gerrymandering between parties allied with the ruling Sunni elite and those led by the country’s Shiite majority.
It comes at a time of growing violence between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq, on the heels of Shiites’ ascent to power after decades of oppression under Saddam, a Sunni.
Many of Bahrain’s Shiites also feel strengthened by the Shiite guerrilla group Hezbollah’s summertime war with Israel and are putting more pressure on a government they say has either blocked or stalled on their demands.
But many Sunnis in Bahrain fear that giving Shiites an equal say in governance would mean losing their own grasp on power and oppose the entry into national elections of the Shiite Al-Wefaq Society, which boycotted the 2002 elections but decided this year to field candidates. Some observers believe Al-Wefaq will gain as many as 14 of the 40 parliamentary seats.
Al-Wefaq and other Shiite groups seek democratic reform and equal rights for Shiites, who are divided on whether to pursue change through the electoral process or through demonstrations.
Elections in 2002 were Bahrain’s first since 1975, when former ruler Sheikh Isa Bin Salman Al Khalifa suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament.
(str-lf-aj)
