Manama: Elections spokesperson Ahdeya Ahmad has dismissed concerns that the religious parties sweep of the Council of Representative seats would hurt individual freedoms in Bahrain.
"The outgoing parliament had several religious figures, but in the past four years, we did not have any law or legislation that restricts personal freedom," Ahdeya told Gulf News.
"We had a Member of Parliament who wanted to segregate between sexes at the University of Bahrain, but his suggestion was turned down by his peers. We also had another member who wanted to set up a special committee to promote virtue and fight vice, but again, it was rejected because the parliament and the people of Bahrain did not like it," she said.
Shiite Al Wefaq Society won 16 of the 29 seats announced on Saturday, while Salafi Al Asala and Muslim Brotherhood Al Menbar each took four seats.
Their combined win and the total failure of the liberals to ensure a presence in the lower house sparked concerns that individual rights, modernisation efforts and secular tendencies would be under threat.
Al Watan daily epitomised the concerns by warning that "Bahrain is at a historic juncture, at which the country would go either towards more progress and reform, or, God forbid, towards crises and the destruction of social peace".
But Ahdeya said that the municipal council experiences of the past four years provided evidence that Sunnis and Shiites could work together and that they were not targeting the citizens' rights.
Al Wefaq controlled three of Bahrain's municipal councils and is now set to strengthen its domination of local governance after it won 18 seats in the municipal elections on Saturday.
