9.5
Pursuant to the provisions of Law Decree No. (15) of 2002 on the Shura
Council and the Council of Representatives and its amendments,
particularly Article No. (27), which stated that " All election
campaigning has to stop all over the kingdom 24 hours before the due
date of the elections", the NIHR noted that the official media
broadcasted television interviews with a number of candidates, in
addition
one
of
the
local
newspapers
published
electoral
advertisements for some candidates during the electoral silence period,
which was deemed an obvious violation of the provisions of the above
mentioned article. 18
9.6
On the other hand, NIHR noted certain cases of child exploitation
during the electoral process that involved employing children to
perform electoral campaigning in public streets and roads for some
candidates. In this regard, NIHR reiterates that involving children in
such practices, could yield serious repercussions on their life and
safety, and is not appropriate to their age group.
9.7
Regarding the lists of voters, on polling day NIHR noted that a large
number of names of eligible voters for parliamentary or municipal
elections were missing. That was a direct result of the change in the
number of districts due to the elimination of the Central Governorate,
causing confusion in some electoral constituencies thus the inability of
some citizens to exercise their electoral right.
* * *
18 For more information, please review the Second Annual Report of the National Institution for Human Rights 2014, Chapter
Three: Section II: The Right to Nomination and Election ( www.nihr.org.bh).
Parallel Report by the National Institution for Human Rights of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the Human Rights Committee © 2018
56