MANAMA, 15 November 2006 — Bahrain’s opposition groups met yesterday to finalize a draft petition requesting King Hamad to scrap the general polling stations and limit voting in the Nov. 25 parliamentary and municipal elections to respective constituences.
Opposition leaders said they feared the 10 centers that would allow voters from across the country to cast their ballots would be used to rig the election results.
More than 20 parliamentary and municipal candidates signed the petition, which is expected to gather more than a hundred signatures from opposition and independent candidates before being presented to the king within two days.
The petitioners said that their demand to close the general polling stations and limiting the voting to the polling centers in the districts was justified because it would be impossible for observers to monitor balloting in the general centers.
“We are also calling for full powers to the candidate or his representative to monitor the voting process and to compare the ballots against the approved voters’ list,” said Ebrahim Shareef, the sectary-general of the Democratic Action Society known as Waad (Promise).
Shareef added that they were also demanding the unification of timing for the parliamentary and municipal elections.
Ali Salman, head of Al-Wefaq Islamic Society, the country’s largest opposition group, told reporters on Sunday that “a huge amount” of money was being circulated in an attempt to influence the outcome of the elections. He alleged that some political societies and groups had been promised thousands of Bahraini dinars in return for their votes.
Salman also expressed alarm over alleged “naturalization” by the government, which the opposition claims is an effort to change the demography of the island nation.
Election committee spokeswoman Ahdeya Ahmad earlier in the week rejected the charges by Sheikh Salman describing his comments as an attempt to create chaos and making people doubt the transparency of the polls.
On Sunday Ali Salman, the secretary-general of Al-Wefaq Islamic Society, which is the largest opposition group, said that a “huge amount” of cash was being circulated to buy votes in an attempt to influence the outcome of the polls.
