In the continuing crackdown on dissent in Bahrain, the government has seized control of the Bahrain Human Rights Society, the Associated Press reports.

The organisation's director, Abdullah al-Derzai, has been dismissed and a replacement will be appointed temporarily, pending the election of a new board.

The BHRS, the first human rights organisation in Bahrain, was founded in 2001 and had been allowed to monitor parliamentary elections in 2006.

The government's takeover is thought to have occurred because the BHRS was considered too sympathetic to Bahrain's Shia majority.

A statement by the Ministry of Social Development said: "The society had moved away from being impartial for all sections of the Bahraini society that led to many complaints sent to the ministry."

The authorities have also been threatening another organisation, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (as I reported here yesterday).

The wave of repression in Bahrain has been widely linked to the parliamentary elections scheduled for next month. Bahrain's population is mainly Shia but the regime itself is Sunni. The Shia al-Wefaq bloc currently holds 17 out of 40 seats in parliament – so it's tempting to assume that the purpose of the crackdown is to prevent them winning a majority.

However, I have been following discussions on a Middle East bulletin board where scepticism has been expressed about this. The discussion was under Chatham House rules, so I'll summarise the gist of it without attribution.

First, the arrested opposition activists belong to parties which were already boycotting the election – i.e. their electoral prospects will not be affected one way or the other by their arrests.

Secondly, the crackdown could easily backfire, resulting in an increased vote for al-Wefaq.

Thirdly, the authorities are perfectly capable of fiddling the election to achieve their desired result, without the need for repression.

An alternative view is that the authorities have simply lost patience with the ongoing demonstrations and violence, and decided to act irrespective of the elections.

Another view is that it's part of a more orchestrated campaign by Sunni regimes in the region which are fearful of their own Shia communities and worried about Iranian influence. Bahrain's crackdown certainly seems to be regarded sympathetically by other Arab Gulf states.