News - Middle East: Protesters in Bahrain have staged fresh rallies to condemn and boycott what they call sham parliamentary elections planned for next week.

Videos circulating online showed protesters in Saar, a residential town to the west of Manama and Sanabis, a village located in the suburbs of the capital, taking to the streets against the November 12 elections.

The protesters held demonstrations in solidarity with freedom of speech prisoners in Bahraini prisons.

They held photos of Bahrain's most prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim and jailed opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman. They also held placards reading: "boycott election", "your vote would upset martyrs", and "boycotting elections is a religious duty."

Despite tight restrictions imposed by the ruling Al Khalifa regime, protesters across Bahrain hold demonstrations on an almost daily basis to show their condemnation of the regime's repressive policies.

Last month, Bahrain's Shia-led opposition groups including al-Wefaq movement said in a statement that they will boycott the parliamentary election as the vote is an attempt to establish "absolute rule in Bahrain."

Last week, Isa Qassim dismissed the country’s elections, saying the ruling regime wants to maintain its grip on power and strengthen tyranny in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom through the ballot boxes.

People demand that the Al Khalifah regime relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established. Manama, however, has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any form of dissent.