Bahrain Mirror: The Bahraini House of Representatives approved on Tuesday (February 20, 2018) a bill to ban members of dissolved societies as well as resigned MPs and members of municipal councils from exercising their political rights.

A number of MPs submitted a bill to amend the law on the practice of political rights for the year 2002. The bill stipulates "banning the active members and officials of political societies that were permanently dissolved due to a serious violation of the Constitution or any law, from exercising their right to run and vote in the municipal and parliamentary elections to come".

The ban also includes, according to the bill, all those who have been expelled or whose membership was "withdrawn" from the House of Representatives, and anyone who resigned from the parliament for the purpose of disrupting parliamentary work, as well as those who have been sentenced over criminal offenses.

It is noteworthy that the authorities dissolved the two largest opposition factions, namely the Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society and the Democratic Action Society. The two societies boycotted the 2014 legislative elections.

The Al-Wefaq parliamentary bloc resigned from parliament in the wake of the February 2011 popular uprising.

Arabic Version