Bahraini women make strong showing

Two women will be running in the second round of Bahrain's parliamentary elections, to be held on Thursday. They are among the 42 candidates vying for the remaining 21 seats of the 40-member House of Deputies.

Nineteen candidates, all of them male, including three who had won unopposed before the elections, were outright winners in the first round held last Thursday.

Latifa Al Guoud is running in the Southern region's first consistency while Fawzia Al Ruwai'e is standing for the Northern region's seventh constituency seat. Most analysts, and indeed the general public, did not anticipate female candidates to make it this far, especially since all the 31 female candidates lost in the municipal elections that was held in May.

However, the two, who were commended by Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa when the results were announced, have proved otherwise.

Latifa, who won 34.53 per cent of the votes in the first round is running run against a well-known Islamist, preacher Jassim Al Saeedi, who got 39.20 per cent of the vote.

Fawzia, with 21.55 per cent first round vote, is running against Yousif Zainal with 39.48 per cent. Other women candidates also did well in the first round and came close to being runner-ups in the second round.

Candidate Amal Al Zayani, from the Capital Governorate, constituency seven, received a 23.68 per cent result. She was running against four male candidates. It wasn't enough, however, to take her to the next round.

For Anissa Fakhro, the competition was fierce in the seventh constituency of the Muharraq region with seven candidates, among them well-known politicians. She came fourth with 13.73 per cent of the vote.

Fatima Al Hawaj and Ghania Rajab ran in the first constituency of the Northern region against two male candidates. Moham-med Al Khayat won with a clear majority, 61.60 per cent of the vote, while Fatima was second with 20.23 per cent and Ghania third with 8.84 per cent. They lost.

Candidate for the First constituency of the Capital, Faiza Al Zayani, ran against eight male candidates. She lost with only 9.20 per cent of the votes at fifth place.

The eighth candidate, Shahzalan Khamis, who had also run in the May municipal elections, competed in the sixth constituency in the Capital against two male candidates, including Hassan Bukhammas who won comfortably with 86.99 per cent while she only got 15.67 per cent.

"This is the first time in Bahrain and the Gulf region that females are a direct part of the elections. Even though I didn't win; the experience alone makes me proud. I will be mentioned in this country's history (…) as one of eight women who participated in the 'first' parliamentary elections," Ghania told Gulf News.

Latifa, however, is optimistic and hopes to win a seat in the parliament.

"It makes me proud to be among the two (women) who will participate in the second round. We have proven the Bahraini female is strong and can reach places," she said.

She is busy "educating" the public about the importance of having a woman in the parliament. "Many are against females being part of the elections. But my hope is that both of us (Fawzia and herself) win seats or at least one of us does," she said.