Manama: Bahrain’s government on Sunday endorsed recommendations to review the electoral constituencies and to transfer the leadership of Bahrain’s bicameral parliament from the upper chamber to the lower chamber.
The decisions, key demands by the opposition, are part of a series of constitutional and legal measures to implement recommendations issued by participants in the national dialogue.
The dialogue, a forum that brought together around 300 Bahrainis from various social, political, rights, media and syndicalism backgrounds, was held in July as part of a solution to reconcile the country and overcome deep political and social divergences that resulted from the events that hit the country in February and afterwards.
The opposition has repeatedly demanded that the elected 40-member lower chamber be given more powers. The 40 members of the upper chamber are all appointed by the king.
Other recommendations also approved by the government at its weekly session were to develop specific criteria to select the members of the Shura Council, the upper chamber, to boost the prerogatives of the lower chamber and to compel ministers to attend the sessions of the parliament when it reviews issues related to their ministries.
