MANAMA, Bahrain: Thousands of newly naturalised Bahrainis will be able to vote in next month’s parliamentary election, an election official said, despite opposition from the Shia majority in the Gulf kingdom.

Talking to Sunday’s edition of Al Ayam newspaper, Abdulrahman Al Sayyed, a member of Bahrain’s supreme election committee, said: “There is no law preventing those naturalised people from practising their political rights as citizens.”

He said a 1963 nationality law, which stipulated a 10-year waiting period for naturalised citizens before having the right to vote “has been nullified by a (2002) law of practising political rights.”

Several thousand people demonstrated in September to denounce government attempts to rig the elections by naturalising foreigners.

The leader of the Islamic National Accord Association Sheikh Ali Salman dismissed the election committee’s decision as “political with no legal nature”.

“The law of practising political rights does not nullify preceding laws,” INAA secretary general Ali Salman told AFP.

The opposition claims that about 52,000 names have been added to the list of registered voters, while the natural increase should not exceed 36,000 citizens.