Bahraini Regime Resorts to Intimidation ahead of Elections
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Al Khalifa regime has resorted to some cruel measures, including coercing the Bahraini people in an attempt to undermine the boycott of the upcoming parliamentary elections by the opposition groups in the Arab country, an opposition figure said.
“Part of the measures (by the Bahraini regime) began after the flames of crisis engulfed the country and another part of the plots was hatched and carried out following the announcement of the boycott of the election,” a senior Bahraini opposition figure told Al-Ahed News website.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the opposition source said that intimidation and threatening people is among “the first repressive and cruel measures” by the Al Khalifa regime.
The regime has also threatened to take away Bahraini nationality from those who refuse to vote in the elections, he noted.
He also emphasized that another measure taken by the Bahraini government was issuing an official statement according to which, anybody refusing to vote in the parliamentary elections next week will be banned from partaking in the 2018 elections.
Earlier in a joint press conference of Bahraini opposition groups in Tehran on Thursday, a prominent Bahraini opposition figure said a vast majority of political groups inside or outside the country have decided to boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections and plan to hold popular referendum despite the Al Khalifa’s crackdown.
“Almost the entire revolutionary and political groups inside and outside Bahrain have an agreement on boycotting elections,” the deputy secretary general of Bahrain’s Islamic Action Society (Al Amal), Sheikh Abdullah Saleh, said.
The Bahraini People have held protests across the country calling for the boycott of the parliamentary elections, due to be held on November 22.
The polls will be the first since protests broke out in the Arab country more than three years ago.
Since mid-February 2011, thousands of protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling on the Al Khalifa royal family to step down from power. The protesters have also slammed the Manama regime’s arrest and torture of political activists.
Many Bahrainis have been killed and hundreds injured and arrested in the ongoing crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.