Tension high as Bahrain prepares for elections

Citizens of the divided Persian Gulf state of Bahrain head to the polls Saturday to elect a 40-member parliament amid high tension between the Sunni Muslim-led government and the country’s Shiite Muslim majority and opposition, which has been subject to a crackdown before the elections.

The government recently has detained prominent activists, shut down websites and newspapers and spoken ominously of a foreign-backed plot to overthrow the government.

“This is a very weird election season,” said Khalil Marzooq, a candidate with the largest Shiite opposition group, Al Wefaq, whose website and newsletter reportedly have been shut down by the authorities.”The government started a security crackdown and the election process is feeding suspicion. This election and its transparency, it’s the worst we’ve seen in Bahrain.”

Shiites complain that some have been told to cast ballots in mostly Sunni areas, to dilute their voting power. Marzooq accused government supporters of tearing down election posters and threatening the advertising company in charge of Al Wefaq’s billboard campaign.

Members of Bahrain’s Supreme Committee for Elections say they are committed to holding fair elections, with nearly 300 Bahraini election observers and webcams set to monitor polling stations on election day.

“We can confidently assert that the elections will be free, fair and transparent,” Judge Abdulla Buainain, head of legal affairs at the Ministry of Justice, said in a statement.

The parliamentary vote Saturday will be the third since 2002, part of reforms launched a decade ago by King Hamed ibn Isa Khalifa. Islamist parties, Shiite opposition groups and the secular leftist Waad party will be competing for seats this year. Although the parliament has some role in policymaking, the government remains firmly under the control of the Khalifa clan.

Shiites complain of discrimination by the Sunni-led government, which accuses some Shiite activists of being dupes of nearby Iran. Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia backs the country’s monarchy, and Iran, with a Shiite majority and government, considers itself a patron of Bahrain’s Shiites.

“The government sees the shadow of Iran behind some opposition people,” said Mustafa Alani, a senior advisor and researcher on security at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. “There is a long history of Iran ambition in Bahrain.”

Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which patrols the Persian Gulf.

Al Wefaq is fielding 18 candidates this year. But other Shiite parties have called for a boycott of the elections and slammed the parliament as a sham, a move Alani doubts will bear fruit. “The great majority of Shiites are supporting the democratic process and the government,” he said.

On Oct. 28, less than a week after the elections, trials are scheduled to begin for about 25 high-profile Shiites accused of being members of a terrorist network plotting to overthrow the government. Several of the activists had recently returned from a conference in London, a stronghold of the Bahraini opposition, where they criticized the government and its human rights practices.

As many as 300 people, including prominent blogger Ali Abdulemam, have been arrested in security sweeps since mid-August, according to Human Rights Watch. The kingdom recently has seen violent protests with tires and trash cans set afire, allegedly by angry Shiite youths.

A group of Bahraini lawyers recently filed a lawsuit against the country’s public prosecutor, alleging that terrorism suspects’ constitutional rights were violated, according to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.

Eight women are reported to be competing for seats this year, down significantly since the 2006 elections in which 17 women ran.

One of the female candidates, Munira Fakhro, said her party was gaining support among diverse groups of opposition voters.

“We have the Shiite party supporting us. Islamists are supporting,” she said. “Some people come with their long beards and say, ‘We believe in what you say and we are supporting you.’

“I feel so happy when I see them.”

Sandels is a special correspondent.