News / Interviews

'Bahrain elections a ruse to deceive global public opinion'

Wednesday, 21 November 2018 11:22 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 21 November 2018 11:26 AM ]

The file photo shows a Bahraini woman casting her vote during a by-election, at a voting station in Bahrain City Center, Manama. (Photo by Reuters)

The purpose of the upcoming parliamentary elections in Bahrain is to make the domestic population believe that they are assigned a role in the management of state affairs and to portray a democratic image of the country on the world stage, says an academic.

“The elections that are being put forward, starting on November 24, they have a purpose and that purpose is to fool the population to make them believe that they have a say in who will govern them but of course … this is a monarchical dictatorship. In such a political structure, the people do not have any say in who runs the government. They are considered subservient to the royal family and they are subjects of the royal family,” Colin Cavell, a former lecturer at University of Bahrain, told Press TV on Wednesday.

Bahrain has barred members of dissolved opposition groups from running in parliamentary elections due to be held later this month.

The tiny Persian Gulf island state is facing widespread criticism from rights groups for failing to provide the conditions for free and fair elections.

The main opposition group as well as a number of prominent clerics have boycotted the vote, calling it a sham.

“But for the world, for the external countries, they are to believe that Bahrain has some sort of democratic representative system. As everybody in your audience, very few people in the United States are aware that there is no democracy in Bahrain and that this is a complete sham and this is a ruse to pull the wool over the international public opinion’s eyes,” he added.

Bahraini people have been holding peaceful protest rallies regularly since February 2011, demanding that the Al Khalifah family relinquish power and let a just system representing all Bahrainis be established.

Manama has responded to the demonstrations with an iron fist. The authorities have detained rights campaigners, broken up major opposition political parties, revoked the nationality of several pro-democracy activists, and deported those left stateless.