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| Arabia |
| Bahrain Opposition Draws Up Roadmap for National Dialogue |
| 2014-02-09 |
| [An Nahar] Bahrain's Shiite-dominated unveiled Saturday a roadmap for restarting national dialogue talks suspended last month, and renewed demands for a constitutional monarchy in the Sunni-ruled kingdom. The proposals were published on the eve of the third anniversary of Shiite-led protests against the government that erupted on February 14 2011, and which have left Bahrain politically deadlocked since. Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa met opposition leaders in mid-January to try revive the national dialogue days after the government suspended the talks which had opened a year ago. The reconciliation talks, which the main Shiite opposition had boycotted, are designed to bring the Sunni-ruled country with a Shiite majority of its political crisis. The Shiite opposition, led by the main movement Al-Wefaq, urged authorities to free "prisoners of conscience," as well as "suspend political processes," and stop "incitation to sectarian hatred". In a statement published by Al-Wefaq and detailing the roadmap to restart the dialogue, the opposition said was ready for "three meetings a week" to speed up reconciliation talks, and that their conclusions should be put to the vote in a referendum. But it also called for the development of a new electoral code for a "fair and transparent (ballot), supervised by an independent electoral commission, as well as delimitation of boundaries that "guarantee equality between citizens". |
| Posted by:Fred |