190 to contest Bahrain elections

Bahrain's election commission announced yesterday a list of 190 candidates who will by vying next month for the 40 seats that make up the House of Deputies.

One candidate, Mohammed Faihan Al Doasari, who is running unchallenged in the sixth district of the Southern Governorate, was declared winner yesterday, a month before the real voting begins on October 24, said Sheikh Ahmed bin Ateyyatullah Al Khalifa, Executive Director, Election Commission.

There are only eight women on the list of candidates, including four who filed their papers just a couple of hours before registration centres closed on Friday night.

Speaking to a number of ministers, religious scholars and citizens at his court, Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa expressed his appreciation to those who are running in the elections, "which enhances public participation in the political decision-making and ensures the success of the modernisation programme," stated BNA, the official new agency, yesterday.

"We have great hopes that those who will have the honour of representing the people in the House of Deputies will foster cooperation between the Executive and Legislative authorities and work together, hand in hand with the spirit of one family, for the welfare and prosperity of the nation," added Sheikh Khalifa.

Local observers believe there should have been more candidates in the race.

Dr Ali Al Aradi, former member of the Shura Council, pointed out that there were 320 candidates in last May's municipal election, "which is far less important than the legislative polls."

The October election will be Bahrain's first since 1975 when the elected National Assembly was dissolved. The new parliament is part of the political reforms initiated by His Majesty the King, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to lead the country out of the political and social deadlock of the mid-1990s.

"But for these reforms to succeed, we should all take part in the democratic game," said Al Aradi, who thinks the "low number of candidates, most of whom are virtually unknown, was not a good sign".

He puts the blame on the four opposition groups that are boycotting the elections: the Islamic National Wefaq, the National Democratic Action, the Islamic Action and the Democratic Nationalist Tajammu.

These groups have announced that they were sitting out the election because they say the new parliament would no be able to perform its legislating duties due to the restrictions imposed on it by the amended constitution, which was introduced by the King in February.

The 2002 constitution gives the appointed 40-member Shura Council legislative powers equal to those of the elected house. The four groups demanded the abolition of this article but the government has rejected the demand so far.

"They should have taken part in the process to try to change whatever they believe is wrong form within the system. They sure cannot do it while they are sitting out," remarked Dr Al Aradi.

Speaking with Radio Bahrain, British MP Ken Purchase, who is leading a visiting British parliamentary delegation to observe the election preparations in Bahrain, expressed his "confidence that Bahrainis will be satisfied, no matter what the outcome of the elections, it would be conducted in a fair and proper way."

The delegation, which has visited the candidates registration centres and met with election officials over the last few days, believes the process was open and transparent, he said.