Bahraini political societies organize a conference amid government's rejection
Four Bahraini political associations which had boycotted the previous parliamentary elections announced they are proceeding forward in organizing a conference they intend to convene today in order to discuss the constitution of the kingdom, at a time when a Bahraini official stressed the need that these societies have to be licensed in order to convene the conference.
Chairpersons of the preparatory committee of the constitutional conference lawyer Jalila al-Sayyed said that the conference will be held at al-Ouroba club after one hotel apologized from hosting it unless it was officially licensed.
The conference preparatory committee yesterday issued a statement in which the Bahraini foreign ministry announced it had contacted the Egyptian and Kuwaiti foreign ministries to inform them about the country's official position which dislikes foreign participants to take part in the said conference.
The statement said that the preliminary committee received apology of an Egyptian parliamentarian from attending while Kuwaiti parliamentarians confirmed attending the conference.
Meantime, the Bahraini minister of information, Nabil Yaqoub al-Homer, denied the ministry of information to have had practiced any pressure on the hotels which apologized to the organizers on the impossibility of convening the conference in it. As for inviting foreigners, al-Homer explained that the conferees want to discuss the constitution, which is a very important matter. It is illogic that foreigners are invited without the consent of the government. Al-Homer denied the ministry of foreign affairs in Bahrain to have made contacts to prevent the participation of Parliamentarians from other countries. He said that the other governments know the position of Bahrain towards interfering in the internal affairs and then they react spontaneously.
For his part, Bahrain minister of the royal court affairs, Khaled Bin Ahmad al-Khalifa, said in a statement broadcast by Bahrain news agency that the foreign participation in the internal affairs of Bahrain is an unacceptable matter.
Worthy mentioning that societies organizing the conference are the Islamic national reconciliation family, the democratic national labor society, the Islamic labor society and the democratic national coalition.
These societies boycotted the legislative elections which were held in Bahrain in October 2002 in protest of the constitutional amendments which it found gave equal legislative authorities for the elected parliament and the appointed Shoura council.