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‘Free and fair elections don't exist in monarchical Bahrain’

Sunday, 25 November 2018 8:25 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 25 November 2018 10:46 AM ]

Bahraini election officials wait for voters at a polling station in Manama, Bahrain, during parliamentary elections on November 24, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

No one should expect free and fair elections in Bahrain, where the ruling regime is a monarchical dictatorship, says a commentator.

“This is a monarchical dictatorship; so, no one should be fooled that you can have elections in a monarchical dictatorship,” Colin Cavell, a former lecturer at the University of Bahrain, said in an interview with Press TV on Sunday, referring to Bahrain.

“The whole charade is to fool the public,” he added.

“The election process that they (Bahraini authorities) are talking about is a selection process not an election process,” he said.

Bahrain held parliamentary elections on Saturday. The country’s main opposition groups were barred from fielding candidates, and they had called for a boycott of the elections. International rights groups have questioned the credibility of the voting.