MUHARRAQ, Bahrain — About 1,500 people chanting for the prime minister's resignation marched through this capital city Friday, accusing the government of working to rig the weekend elections against Bahrain's Shiite majority.A huge turnout is expected when polls open Saturday after a campaign that has been fierce and dirty, with rally tents vandalized, allegations of secret government funding for favored candidates and torrents of text messages flooding mobile phones. Anonymous messages warn Sunni Muslims to back pro-government candidates against the Shiite Muslim-led opposition or face Iraq-style chaos.
"Wake up Sunnis!" reads one broadly distributed message. "Don't be naive or your fate will be like the Iraqi Sunnis who lost their rights and their lives."