Tougher punishments for electoral crimes welcomed

The ratification and issuance of a new legislation by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa yesterday, toughening the punishments against crimes committed during the municipal elections, were welcomed by heads of municipal councils in the Kingdom.

This comes as the Royal Court yesterday announced that HM the King ratified and issued Law 33 of 2018 amending article 30 of Law 3 of 2002 on the regulation of municipal elections. The new law increased the punishments from serving a sentence not exceeding a period of three months and/or paying a fine of no more than BD200 to two years sentence and a fine of no more than BD1,000.

This includes certain crimes that are aimed at adversely affecting the municipal election process, which is held once in every four years.

 The crimes include the acts of deliberately making false statements, falsely adding/ removing names to/from the finalised voters’ schedules, affecting the elections by force, distortion or threats, voting more than once, impersonation, insulting the working committees or spreading false news to insult and defame a certain candidate.

It also included forging, erasing, obscuring, destroying or stealing voters’ schedules, ballot papers or other documents relating to the elections process with the intention of changing the outcomes of the elections.