Three Bahraini human rights organizations launched a report entitled "Electoral Intimidation", which monitors the most prominent forms of electoral intimidation that security, ministerial, diplomatic and parliamentary agencies have been involved in, in conjunction with the second round of elections held on Saturday December 1, 2018. The forms of intimidation were distributed between summonses, rumors, calls by the Royal Court, media messages and statements, legislations, hate speech in the official media, verbal threats and arbitrary arrests, in addition to the practices of the National Security Agency (NSA). The report pointed out that some of the forms of punishments referred to by the various means of intimidation are: deprivation of civil and political rights, deprivation of economic rights, deprivation of citizenship right, deprivation of housing services, arbitrary dismissal of work, deprivation of the right to education, Arbitrary arrests, prosecutions and security pursuits. The report pointed out to the media statement by member of the Council of Commissioners of the National Institute for Human Rights (NIHR), MP Khaled al-Shaer, which intimidated the citizens, explaining that since the NIHR did not deny the adoption of Khaled al-Shaer’s statement, then it supports the adoption of illegal repressive measures against the boycotters of the elections. The report concluded that several parties were involved in electoral intimidation, including the following: Follow-up Minister at the Royal Court, Sheikh Ahmed bin Atiyatallah Al Khalifa, Bahraini Interior Minister Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Speaker of Parliament Ahmad al-Mulla, National Institute for Human Rights, Chief of Public Security Tariq al-Hassan, Minister of Education Majid bin Ali al-Nuaimi, Minister of Justice Khalid bin Ali bin Abdullah al-Khalifa, Minister of Defense Yusuf bin Ahmed bin Hussein Al Jalahma, Minister of Health Faeqa bint Saeed al-Saleh, Head of the Public Prosecution and head of the electoral crimes investigation committee Mhana Al-Shayji, Bahraini Ambassador to the United Kingdom Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Bahraini Ambassador to the Russian Federation Ahmed Abdulrahman al-Saati. The human rights organizations that issued the report are: Salam for Democracy and Human Rights, Bahrain Forum for Human Rights, Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights. |