Opposition in Bahrain Set to Boycott Parliamentary Elections

Al-Wefaq, Bahrain’s largest Shiite group, reported on Friday that it would boycott the parliamentary elections taking place next month.  Khalil Marzooq, a leader of Al-Wefaq, said at a rally near Bahrain’s capital that “if the party participates in the September elections, it will be giving the government a stamp of approval.”  He added that the group disagrees with how security forces treated protesters.

Anthony Mathew Jacob writes in Tehran Times that the Bahraini people still have a long road ahead in their fight against the regime.  Jacob discusses the government abuse against activists, doctors and nurses, journalists, lawyers and members of the opposition.  ”Apart from violence, detention and torture the government has forcefully got its citizens to sign pledges that prohibit participation in any kind of anti-government rallies, failing which can lead to dire consequences,” Jacob writes.  Additionally, Jacob emphasizes that the Al Khalifa regime is not the only aggressor toward it’s citizens, “its friends the Saudi and the UAE governments have sent in their troops to silence the protesters. The U.S. and UK governments are no better” since the U.S. sold weapons to the regime last December and the UK has both supplied the regime with weapons and also trained the Bahraini police in “its brutal crackdown.”

Brian Dooley sent a letter to the editor to the Washington Post emphasizing that the U.S. government must change it’s allegiance in Bahrain and stand firmly on the side of democracy. “It is not in America’s strategic interest to alienate democracy activists in Bahrain or to be seen as a nation that arms the riot police who shoot at civilians,” Dooley writes.