AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The people of Bahrain took to the streets on Friday on the eve of the sham elections to protest the electoral process and announce that they are boycotting the election.
The demonstrators demanded that the sham elections be boycotted, seeing as that they serve the political trajectory of the ruling class, which is the normalization of ties with the Israeli occupation.
Bahraini cleric Issa Qassem told the people of Bahrain that the elections constitute a test of the populace’s awareness, explaining that to elect means opening the door for Bahraini-citizenship-bearing Israelis to vote for parliament members.
Qassem called for tomorrow to be a day of mourning for the Bahraini people, stressing that participating in the election is like signing a document agreeing to make matters worse and signing a normalization agreement.
“The participation of dual citizens and the military bolsters the state’s position against the people at the expense of their livelihood, values, and social security,” Qassem added.
“The electorate – soldiers, dual citizens, security forces, those with personal interests in mind, and normalization advocates – will create a parliament for the government, not the people,” he stressed.
“The electorate and the candidates, those of which that care about their religion and the interests of their people and country, must know that the incoming parliament was put together in such a way that leads to a parliament even less valuable and less loyal than the outgoing one,” Qassem explained.
“Boycotting teaches the government a lesson that its plans against the people will be fruitless as long as the people are aware.”
Deputy chief of Al-Wefaq Society Sheikh Hussain Al-Daihi clarified the reasons why the people should boycott the election, such as the regime and the people in power monopolizing the country’s wealth and violating the principle of democracy, as well as the discrimination faced by the Bahraini people at the hands of the state.
Bahrainis organized on Wednesday demonstrations, again, to denounce and abstain from what they view as fraudulent parliamentary elections scheduled for tomorrow.
Protesters demonstrated solidarity with citizens that were detained for exercising their right to free expression in Bahraini jails.
Bahraini protestors stage rallies almost every day to express their opposition to the Al Khalifa dictatorship’s oppressive policies, despite the harsh limitations enforced by the regime.
Earlier, on November 6, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Bahraini political party Al-Wefaq, Sheikh Al-Daihi, announced that his party is boycotting the general elections in Bahrain.
The reasons justifying the boycott are diverse but mainly concern the failure to implement a crucial reform, ongoing political repression in the country, and authorizing the zionist entity to meddle with the country’s domestic affairs.
The remarks were delivered during a press conference in which Sheikh Al-Daihi said Bahrainis have no power or representation in legislation and legislative processes.
According to the Sheikh, the core issue is that Bahrainis are deprived of a legal state by a small group of elites that carry out most decision-making, manage public wealth and security, and deprive the people of all their rights.
He further said that Bahrainis are continuing to pay a heavy price for their freedoms by getting killed, imprisoned, displaced, dishonored, denaturalized, their mosques demolished, their basic rights infringed on, and the list goes on.
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