Bahrain king reassures Shia clergy over polls
(AFP)
10 October 2006
MANAMA – Bahrain’s Sunni ruler King Hamad has reassured the spiritual leadership of the Gulf state’s Shia majority that there will be no attempt to rig next month’s parliamentary elections, a report said on Tuesday.
The Council of Muslim Scholars had sought Sunday’s meeting with the king following charges by a Briton, since expelled as an alleged spy, that a Sunni clique within the government was plotting to maintain the minority sect’s domination of the archipelago, the Al-Wasat daily said.
“The clergy asked the king during Sunday’s meeting for practical assurances concerning the affair that has exercised public opinion recently,” the council’s chairman Sheikh Issa Qassem told the paper in allusion to the accusations made by Salah al-Bandar.
Bahrain king reassures Shia clergy over polls
(AFP)
10 October 2006
MANAMA – Bahrain’s Sunni ruler King Hamad has reassured the spiritual leadership of the Gulf state’s Shia majority that there will be no attempt to rig next month’s parliamentary elections, a report said on Tuesday.
The Council of Muslim Scholars had sought Sunday’s meeting with the king following charges by a Briton, since expelled as an alleged spy, that a Sunni clique within the government was plotting to maintain the minority sect’s domination of the archipelago, the Al-Wasat daily said.
“The clergy asked the king during Sunday’s meeting for practical assurances concerning the affair that has exercised public opinion recently,” the council’s chairman Sheikh Issa Qassem told the paper in allusion to the accusations made by Salah al-Bandar.
“The clergy are looking for practical, concrete measures. We told the king that we will not tolerate discrimination whether against Sunnis or against Shias,” Qassem said.
“The meeting was positive from the point of view of the promises that we secured,” he added.
Bandar, who was expelled from Bahrain last month, said he had uncovered a secret organization operating within the Sunni-led government to “deprive an essential part of the population of this country of their rights.
“This group aims to prevent people from participating in electing freely their representatives … in order to transform the political opposition into a mere figure opposition and block any chance of alternation in the executive power.”
Bandar’s accusations prompted a wave of Shia protests last month.
Bahrain, which was shaken by a wave of Shia unrest in the 1990s, revived its elected parliament in 2002. However, the opposition continues to object to the splitting of legislative power equally between the elected chamber and an appointed consultative council.
The Shia-led opposition largely boycotted the last elections in 2002. However, after Sunday’s meeting with the king, the clergy called on the community to turn out on November 25.
“Despite all the political and security crises and all the disappointments, the Council of Muslim Scholars believes that taking part in the elections is the best choice to counter this situation with all its complications,” a statement said Monday.
The majority community’s fears have been fanned by plans by the electoral commission to enfranchise thousands of newly naturalised Bahrainis, overwhelmingly Sunnis from south Asia, in what the opposition charges is a blatant attempt to inflate the minority sect’s electoral weight.
