arty or
another. The matter must be made perfectly clear to the individuals, who
will be left free to exercise their discretion and judgment. But if a
certain person does enter into party politics and labors for the
ascendency of one party over another, and continues to do it against the
expressed appeals and warnings of the Assembly, then the Assembly has the
right to refuse him the right to vote in Baha'i elections."

215: VOTING RIGHT, THE

"I feel I must reaffirm the vital importance and necessity of the right of
voting--a sacred responsibility of which no adult recognized believer
should be deprived, unless he is associated with a community that has not
as yet been in a position to establish a Local Assembly. This
distinguishing right which the believer possesses, however, does not carry
with it nor does it imply an obligation to cast his vote, if he feels that
the circumstances under which he lives do not justify or allow him to
exercise that right intelligently and with understanding. This is a matter
which should be left to the individual to decide himself according to his
own conscience and discretion."

216: VOTING RIGHTS (STATUS OF INDIVIDUALS DEPRIVED OF)

"Concerning your question as to the status of those individuals whom the
Local Assembly or the N.S.A. have considered it necessary to deprive of
the voting right and to suspend from local meetings and gatherings; such
action which Local and National Assemblies have been empowered to take
against such recalcitrant members, however justified and no matter how
severe, should under no circumstances be considered as implying the
complete expulsion of the individuals affected from the Cause. The
suspension of voting and other administrative rights of an individual,
always conditional and therefore temporary, can never have such far
reaching implications, since it constitutes merely an administrative
sanction; whereas his expulsion or ex-communication from the Faith, which
can be effected by the Guardian alone in his capacity as the supreme
spiritual head of the community, has far-reaching spiritual implications
affecting the very soul of that believer. The former, as already stated,
is an administrative sanction, whereas the latter is essentially
spiritual, involving not only the particular relationship of a believer to
his local or National Assembly, but his very spiritual existence in the
Cause. It follows, therefore, that a believer can