Gulf | Bahrain
Al Wefaq urges limit on new Bahraini citizenship
Political group suggests only 50 applicants be granted nationality annually and be prevented from voting or running for political office
- By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
- Published: 23:27 November 27, 2008
Manama: Al Wefaq, the largest parliamentary bloc in Bahrain, has called for imposing a limit on the number of people who can be granted Bahraini nationality annually.
The move to limit the number to 50 people, aims to ensure that only the most eligible applicants are accepted and that Bahrain's demographic balance is not altered by what the opposition calls "political naturalisation", a highly controversial issue in the country.
And in a move to ensure that the newly-naturalised Bahrainis have no influence on the country's political life, Al Wefaq said that they must wait ten years before they are given the right to hold high political positions or to run for and vote in council elections, a decision that would keep them out of the quadriannual municipal and parliamentary elections.
Tension flared up in the 2006 elections when Al Wefaq and other opposition formations put pressure on the government to ban naturalised Bahrainis from voting or presenting their candidacies unless they had had the nationality for at least ten years. The opposition complained that the "new Bahrainis" would automatically vote for candidates supported by the government as a sign of gratitude for being granted the citizenship.
However, the authorities and some rights activists rejected the claims, saying that all Bahrainis were equal according to the constitution and that denying some of them their electoral rights amounted to "blatant discrimination."
In its draft law seeking to supplant the 1963 Citizenship Law on the grounds that it is outdated, Al Wefaq said that the "new Bahrainis" should formally and unequivocally give up their original nationality and should keep a residence in Bahrain.
The move will ostensibly affect Bahraini citizens who had moved to live in neighbouring countries, mainly Saudi Arabia, but kept their passports.
Al Wefaq has, however, not sought a change to the period of 15 years that an Arab citizen must spend in Bahrain before applying for Bahraini citizenship.
Non-Arabs have to spend 25 years. But the society stressed a requirement for would-be applicants to speak and write Arabic fluently.
A foreign woman married to a Bahraini must live for at least five years with her husband in the country and must have a child from him in order to become eligible for the citizenship, the draft law said.
Her citizenship would be withdrawn if she re-married a non-Bahraini or decided to keep her original nationality.
A child born to a Bahraini mother and a foreign father can have the Bahraini nationality only if he does not obtain his father's citizenship, according to the draft law.
In its draft law, Al Wefaq said that the "new Bahrainis" should formally and unequivocally give up their original nationality and should keep a residence in Bahrain.
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