Manama: Bahrain's leading leftist group, the National Action Democratic Society (Waad), said that it would announce "within a few weeks" the list of its candidates for the parliamentary elections slated for October or November.
"We are still working on the list, but we hope that it will be out either this month or in April," Ebrahim Shareef, Waad secretary general, said on Saturday.
The society boycotted the 2002 elections, the first to be held in Bahrain following a three-decade hiatus, to demand for more reforms.
However, it took part in the 2006 elections, alongside two other societies that shunned the inaugural polls, but did not win any seat despite a highly spirited campaign that had to put up with a ferocious anti-Waad movement spearheaded by conservative opponents.
In January, the society's general assembly voted to take part in the forthcoming elections, following heated debates on the merits of the boycott and the participation.
The society is currently looking at its options in 2010, but these most likely will not include an alliance with Al Wefaq, Bahrain's largest political-religious society and parliamentary bloc.
"An alliance with Al Wefaq is very difficult, so we will be just coordinating with them. AL Wefaq wants to keep the 17 seats it won in 2006 and compete in 18 constituencies, and this makes an alliance highly difficult," Ebrahim said.
Al Wefaq drew on its large base to carry 17 of the 40 seats in the elections. Smaller societies long sought to forge some form of partnership with the society or requested it to withdraw from some constituencies so that they could win, but Al Wefaq remained adamant on fielding candidates in all the constituencies that it could win.
Some societies later expressed their frustration with Al Wefaq and the society became the only force to represent the opposition in the parliament.
New attempts by societies to forge a partnership with Al Wefaq for the 2010 elections were blocked after it told them that it was not interested.
"We are considering an alliance with the other opposition groups, but much will depend on their programmes and the names of their candidates," Ebrahim said. "It is still a bit early to talk about alliances since each of the societies is focusing right now on formulating the programmes and selecting the candidates."
Liberals in Bahrain have been working on a political and social comeback after they suffered heavy setbacks at the hand of conservative and religious forces.
However, their small number remains ten years later a major handicap in the face the well organised masses of religious societies that emerged and dominated after they were able to fill in the political space opened by reforms.
