The parliament has been dominated by government supporters, especially after the opposition submitted their resignations in early 2011 in protest against government crackdown. According to RT, the Bahraini government often employs the terms "terrorists" or "thugs" to refer to protesters and has used "broad definitions of terrorism to detain scores of protesters and to convict several opposition leaders". A week earlier, the government used an explosion as a pretext to block several planned anti-government protests.
