MANAMA, Bahrain: A Bahraini opposition group said it would boycott parliamentary elections due next year unless its demands for constitutional reforms were met.

Islamic National Accord Association (INAA)’s General Assembly refuses "to deal positively with the parliamentary elections slated for 2006 unless constitutional reforms are introduced, in agreement between the ruler and citizens," the INAA said in a statement.

According to the statement the main reform would confine legislative powers and the authority to act as watchdog over the executive to the elected parliament, while the mandate of an appointed consultative council would be restricted to giving advice.

Electoral constituencies should also be delineated in a "fair" manner, it said.

The statement said the General Assembly had agreed to "gradually turn (the INAA) from an association into a modern political party".

Moves in this direction would include setting up branches across the country, where formal political parties remain banned, like in other conservative Gulf Arab states.

The INAA, the main political formation of Bahrain's Shia Muslim majority, and three allied groupings - the leftist National Democratic Action Association, the pan-Arabist Nationalist Democratic Rally, and the Shia Islamic Action Association - have demanded constitutional reform since boycotting 2002 polls in protest at a constitutional amendment which split legislative power equally between the elected chamber and the appointed consultative council. INAA is headed by Sheikh Ali Salman.