Bahrain: Parliamentarians warn of violating the parliament in constitutional amendments

Three Bahraini parliamentarians yesterday warned against the " attempt to eliminate the role played by the parliament " concerning the constitutional matter and called for " a comprehensive national dialogue conference" in order to discuss the " national priorities especially the constitutional subject matter."

The first deputy of the Bahraini speaker of parliament Abdul Hadi Marhoun, member " of the democratic parliamentarians bloc" said " we warn against violating the role of the parliament in its capacity as a people's representation side and a legislative authority that can not be underestimated, especially in regard to constitutional amendments." Thereby he was referring to the dialogue already started several days ago between the ministry of social affairs and labor with four political societies that boycotted the legislative elections in 2002, in protest of the constitutional amendments. A dialogue came after a meeting between the King of Bahrain with representatives of nine political societies in June.

Marhoun considered that " imposing solutions that are not designed by various sides will be rejected by other sides," stressing the need of discussing " major pending issues like discrimination, living conditions, unemployment, besides other national issues approved by participants and all players." It is, however, expected that the Bahraini parliament will discuss proposals to make constitutional amendments proposed by independent parliamentary blocs in its next session in October.