Anyone trying to sabotage Bahrain's national elections could be jailed for two years and fined up to BD2,000 ($5,303) under new rules proposed by the Shura Council.

Civil servants would face a tougher punishment of up to three years in jail and fine of BD3,000 if they misuse their posts to 'harm' the electoral process, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Shura Council members yesterday passed the new amendments to the Political Rights Law, which the government is obliged, under the constitution, to present as a draft bill by October.

Council legislative and legal affairs committee secretary Ahmed Al Haddad said it was necessary to increase the punishments from the existing six-month jail sentence and BD100 fine.

“The current punishments are not in line with the magnitude of the crime committed against the nation, especially when it involves tampering with, distorting or ridiculing the elections or referendum process,” he said.

“Anyone who publishes, posts or spreads false information about the nature of the elections or referendums, procedures in general, or the attitude, beliefs and ideologies of candidates running for elections to affect results will also be punished.”

Meanwhile, a Royal decree that will see the names of those who took part in previous national elections registered for the upcoming polls was also approved by the council.

The decree was issued as an amendment to the same law, issued by His Majesty King Hamad during the National Assembly's recess in November.

Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa told council members during the weekly session yesterday that the new list of voters will be prepared in line with names of previous participants.

“This will encourage people to check their names for elections if they are eligible, but we have no plans of depriving anyone, even those who boycott, from taking part in upcoming elections if they didn't do so last year or in 2018 or so on,” he explained.

“We will not and never stop anyone from voting, Bahrain is a democratic country that believes in the democratic process.

“It is just an encouragement as there are many who didn't check their names last year and missed out on voting, and if we allowed them to do so after the registration period was over then participation would have been 60 per cent rather than 52 per cent.” - TradeArabia News Service