MANAMA, 11 October 2006 — Bahrain’s King Hamad has reassured the leadership of the country’s Shiite opposition that there will be no attempt to rig next month’s parliamentary elections, press reports said yesterday.
The Al-Wasat daily said the Council of Muslim Scholars had sought a meeting with the king following allegations that a clique within the government was plotting to maintain domination by changing the country’s demographics.
“The scholars asked the king during Sunday’s meeting for assurances concerning the affair that has preoccupied public opinion recently,” the council’s chairman Sheikh Isa Qasim told Al-Wasat in reference to the accusations made by Salah Al-Bandar, a British national who had been expelled from the country on spying charges.
“The religious leaders are looking for practical, concrete measures. We told the king that we will not tolerate discrimination whether against Sunnis or against Shiites,” Qasim 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 government to “deprive an essential part of the population of this country of their rights.
“This group aims to prevent people from freely electing their representatives in order to render the political opposition weak and block any chance of transfer in the executive power.” Bandar’s accusations prompted a wave of opposition protests last month.
After Sunday’s meeting with the king, the scholars called on the people to turn out on Nov. 25. “The Council of Muslim Scholars believes that taking part in the elections is the best choice to counter the situation with all its complications,” a statement said Monday.
