Liberals test their mettle

1.699403-2554425961 — Opposition candidate Muneera Fakhro greets a supporter at her election tent in Isa Town, south of Manama. Bahrainis go to the polls on Saturday. Image Credit: EPA

Manama: Can liberal candidates win in Bahrain's elections? The answer depends on whom you ask.

For liberals, the answer is obvious. They readily point to the numerous standoffs that marked the religion-dominated 2006-2010 lower chamber to argue for the need to elect candidates with fresh viewpoints.

Deeply sectarian and often divided along sectarian lines, the outgoing lower chamber, where 32 of the 40 members represented three openly religious societies, is not recalled with fondness by Bahrainis who had hoped for greater economic and social achievements, liberal candidates say.

"Our constituents long for a change, a real change that will reinforce public freedom, human rights and achievements," Hassan Al Madan, the leader of the Democratic Progressive Tribune, said.

"We have put out a platform that offers the boosting of education, public services, housing and infrastructure. That is what people need and want."

Al Madan, a candidate in the eighth constituency of the Northern Governorate, said liberals deserve a chance to help do away with the sectarianism that plagued the outgoing lower chamber.

Voice of reason

"We need a voice of reason and moderation to ensure national unity. We must do away with the ominous sectarian tendencies," he said.

His call prompted angry reactions among conservatives not keen on hearing a dissonant voice in the area, and rumours about his society's resistance to religion fused from everywhere.

Al Madan, however, said he's not affected by rumours targeting him and his society.

"Despite all the negative campaigning, the slanderous attacks, the malicious rumours, voters in Bahrain have now reached an awareness level that allows them to discern the truth. They simply cannot be easily fooled or readily influenced and I am confident that they will cast their ballots for those who deserve to represent them."

Other liberal candidates had to prove they were not guilty. Running in the seventh constituency of the Northern Governorate, one of the hottest battlefields, Hassan Al A'ali, the head of the Pan-Arab Nationalist Democratic Rally Society, a political group with strong ties to Baathist ideology, started off his parliament bid by fending off allegations that he used bribes to seek votes from needy families and people bordering on poverty lines.

"These claims are not true and lack credibility," he said.

"Such practices are unethical, immoral and against our religion. What we did was to assist some people who were living in difficult conditions by recommending their names to benefactors. It was an act of selflessness. However, it was used to claim that we were giving away fridges and ACs [air-conditioning units] to vulnerable voters," he said.

However, observers see that Al A'ali's formidable task is not to discredit allegations, but how he, a Liberal candidate, can beat his main opponent Jasem Al Hussain, the lawmaker who represented the deeply religious Al Wefaq, Bahrain's largest society, in the 2006-2010 lower chamber.

Al Wefaq confident

Backed by calls from religious authorities to support candidates with strong religious commitment, Al Wefaq has repeatedly said that it was confident that its candidates would undoubtedly win in their constituencies.

Al Hussain himself pre-empted attempts to doubt the religious inclinations of his constituents by saying that the constituency supported Al Wefaq and that non-Wefaqis could not make any breakthrough.

"This is a closed constituency and the outcome is obvious. Why should I engage in a debate when I am heading towards an outright win? It is a technical knockout," he said, as he turned down a call by Hassan Al A'ali to hold a public debate ahead of the voting. But Al A'ali refused to give up and insisted on the debate, arguing that Al Wefaq's candidate should not be afraid of a public discussion.

The public exchange between the two candidates, although not accorded any special attention in the local media, reflects the scope of the relations between large religious formation and much smaller liberal groups.

Al Wefaq, the exclusive expression of Shiite politics and whose outgoing MPs were an amalgam of religious figures and some scholars, the exclusively Sunni Al Asala, the flagship of the Salafis in Bahrain and the political wing of the Islamic Education Society, and the Islamic Menbar, the Bahraini offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and well organised through a network of mosques, have never hidden their insistence that religion should define and shape tendencies and moves both in the parliament and outside.

Adel Al Mouawda, the best known figure from Al Asala and a two-term MP who is already assured of a third term after his opponent pulled out of the race, said that he preferred to work alongside committed Shiites than Sunni liberals.

Second attempt

Obviously Al Mouawda would not support the Democratic National Action Society "Waad", Bahrain's largest leftist political formation, as it embarks on a second attempt to reach the parliament.

Waad, the society that emerged out of the Popular Front, a radical clandestine opposition movement of Maoist, tried in 2006 to have some of its members elected.

The list is headed by its chairman Abdul Rahman Al Nuaimi, who is now in coma, and comprising activists Ebrahim Al Sharif, Muneera Fakhroo and Sami Al Siyadi, was the most liberal in the elections, but could not resist the onslaught of Islamists amid charges that Waad was promoting a Communist agenda.

The society lost and attributed its loss to conspirators. The three candidates are once more in the race, and have, expectably, announced their confidence they would build on their experience to win.

Al Wefaq, despite its insistence on religion as the top factor in any move, seemed to extend support to the three candidates put forth by Waad. The aim is obviously to reinforce the status of the opposition in the lower chamber.

Timeline: the road to polls