Bahrain Mirror: Leader in Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, Ali Al-Aswad, called for boycotting the elections to be held on November 24.

He said in a series of tweets on his Twitter account, responding to the Minister of Justice Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa, this week "as a citizen that cares for his country and keen on security, peace, coexistence and equality, I am not only boycotting the upcoming municipal and parliamentary elections in Bahrain, but I also call for a widespread boycott."

Minister of Justice, who heads the high elections committee, denied on September 27 the existence of any calls to boycott the elections. He said that no voice has been heard calling for the boycott of elections, and if there are voices demanding the boycott, they fall on deaf ears.

For his part, Ali Al-Aswad said "one of the ministers who are aggravating the situation in Bahrain appears on occasions only to play the role given to him in order to make the elections succeed in form only, intending to produce a new reality with a police tool," adding that "intimidation, threats and prisons are open to those who call for the boycott and the authorities' threatening message about the risks of boycotting calls has reached more than one party. This means you have to either participate under force or shut up."

"Any citizen has the right to vote or boycott, and the authorities have no right to block the citizen's opinion when it comes to democracy, and anything other than that is intimidation and pressures imposed by the police state and law of state security enforced by the interior and Justice ministries in Bahrain," he said. Ali Al-Aswad further stated "we are not concerned with a formality process upon which the state spends millions in order to whitewash a black image."

Arabic Version