Dubai: Bahrain’s main opposition movement Al Wefaq on Saturday handed its leader a new four-year stint. Al Wefaq’s activities are banned in Bahrain.
Shaikh Ali Salman, 49, was re-elected at Al Wefaq’s general congress on Friday night, in a meeting held to comply with a law on associations that led to the three-month ban.
In July, the justice ministry sued Al Wefaq demanding it rectify its “illegal status following the annulment of four general assemblies for lack of a quorum and the non-commitment to the public and transparency requirements for holding them”.
The Manama administrative court slapped Al Wefaq with the ban on October 28 and gave it three months to hold an assembly to elect its leaders.
The ruling came after Al Wefaq announced it was boycotting a parliamentary election in November, the first elections held since anti-government protests began in 2011.
Al Wefaq, which withdrew its lawmakers from parliament in protest, denounced the vote as a “farce”.
It has called for an elected prime minister who is independent from the ruling royal family.
