Efforts made by some clerics and political functions to urge people not to take part in them, by trying to convince them that “boycotting them is a must” and hinting that participation is religiously forbidden, have proved meaningless as voters headed massively to the polling stations and exercised their constitutional rights.
In addition to the above incitement, groups of saboteurs and outlaws tried to spread chaos and disturbance so as to create unfavorable conditions for the elections to take part and make citizens boycott them through violence and incitement. In this context, a group of rioters stormed the City Centre Complex on Friday, at around 04pm, creating chaos and terrorizing shoppers.
Those “preliminary” factors were aimed at convincing citizens of not going to the 14 remaining polling stations on Saturday, since the other four candidates had already secured their parliamentary seats uncontested.
However, acts of sabotage and intimidation, which are alien to all human rights principles, did not stop there. Indeed, they continued on the polling day, as well, in order to obstruct the electoral process, whose transparency and fairness were guaranteed by the government, and affect the natural flow of voters by depriving them of joining their respective polling centres to choose their representatives.
Among these acts of sabotage was the one which took place in Bilad Al Qadim where 15 outlaws blocked roads and streets leading to the Qurtoba Intermediate Girls School’s polling centre by dustbins, and ran away when security forces arrived there.
At, 10.55 am, 50 other saboteurs gathered outside the same centre, but security forces dispersed them. An hour later, 25 other persons, of the two sexes, did the same thing and refused to leave until riot police was summoned to scene and dealt with them.
Other than that, illegal instigative political slogans were also spotted on the walls of the same school, which reflects the vandals’ aim to strong resolve and determination to hinder the voting process or, at least, reduce the number of voters.
Of course, those acts did not happen in a particular place only. In fact, similar things took place in other constituencies. For instance, a group of 30 outlaws’ spilt oil near Al Sanabis Intermediate Girls School’s polling centre, half an hour before voting begins, for the sake of causing traffic congestion and preventing citizens from casting their votes.
The barbarous campaign continued in other constituencies across the kingdom, as saboteurs smashed voters’ cars near A’ali polling station, blocked some roads near voting centres in the Capital Governorates 4th and 8th constituencies, the Central Governorate’s 2nd constituency and the Northern Governorate’s 2nd constituency for the sake of terrorizing voters and urging them not to participate at by-elections, which required the security forces to intervene in order ensure the success of the elections and the security of citizens.
The Interior Ministry has dealt with those acts according to its prerogatives and will take legal actions against all those who violated the kingdom’s laws.