Elections and rumours season

With the approach of every municipal and parliamentary elections, we biennially observe a disturbing phenomenon that accompanies this season; the spread of rumours and gossips. In the Middle East region, alike many other countries across the globe, elections are usually accompanied by a cold war of rumours. The most recent example is the presidential elections in the United States, where a fierce competition arose between candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

This competition fuelled a war of rumours and accusations between both parties, eventually affecting the choice and trust of the American people in the 2016 elections. But, what can be observed from such harmful phenomenon is that rumours usually backfire and eventually have a negative impact on those who created and spread them. In many times, rumours fail to serve the purposes they were created for, as they are based on lies and baseless facts, with the sole goal of weakening opponents and eliminating other candidates from the competition.

It’s noticeable that they quickly vanish with the same speed that it took them to be spread. A storm in a tea cup. Nowadays, with the rapid advance in information and communications technology, we witness a significant role of the different social media platforms in supporting or denying rumours. Some rumours are spread online and quickly vanish before it could be actually discussed. This has occurred recently as certain political parties and blocs have targeted a candidate who announced his intention to contest in the upcoming elections.

The false news spread about the candidate wouldn’t have only affected his stance in the polls, but would’ve also impacted his personal and professional life. The rumours accompanying the elections season has become a phenomenon that occurs every four years, but the type of lies and false news spread could seriously harm some individuals who only wanted to participate in an honest competition to serve the country.

Those who create serious accusations and spread such baseless rumours, with the aim of eliminating and harming certain candidates, should be described as criminals and must be legally held accountable for defamation. Unfortunately, there’re certain individuals, who work in several campaigns promoting certain candidates, with the only purpose of spreading lies to harm and eliminate competitors.

This is considered a crime that should be promptly dealt with legally and the punishments should be announced before the elections season concludes, to warn of the hazards such phenomena have on the society. The Bahraini society has always been a fair society that rejects rumours and considers it an enmity and a great sin.

This was mentioned in a recent Friday sermon here in Bahrain, as the Khateeb (the person delivering the sermon) stressed that backbiting and spreading rumours are great sins, whether they were committed against candidates or any other individuals. Such acts could not be justified and are unacceptable.