Manama: The only woman to reach the second round of the Bahrain parliamentary elections, on Saturday, suffered a huge blow after her opponent was promised the votes of the candidate who came third in the three-way polls.
Muneera Fakhroo, a liberal running on a National Action Democratic Society ‘Waad’ ticket thought she had a very good chance of wining the run-off next Saturday with Eisa Al Qadhi, an independent candidate, even though he had a higher score in the first round.
But Al Qadhi got 3,237 votes, 43.13 per cent of the ballots, while Muneera got 2,510 votes, representing 33.44 per cent in the fourth constituency of the Central Governorate.
However, Adel Al Shaer, who has been eliminated from the race in which only the two top scorers face each other, is supporting Al Qadhi.
"My full backing goes to Eisa and I have already urged my supporters to cast their ballots in his favour on Saturday," he said.
"We want to assist whoever is more eligible to serve the country as a whole, and not a political society or personal interests, and we are confident that Eisa Al Qadhi is the right candidate”.
A win by Al Qadhi would mean that Latifa Al Gaood will once more be the only woman in the 40-member lower chamber after she carries her constituency in the absence of a challenger. In 2006, she made history by becoming the first woman in the Gulf Cooperation Council to get a seat in an elected parliament. She also ran unopposed.
The win would also stop Al Wefaq increasing opposition power in the lower chamber by one vote at least.
The society, whose tally is 18, thanks to a perfect score on Saturday, has long supported Munera Fakhroo and the other two Waad candidates, Ebrahim Sharif and Sami Al Seyadi, in the hope of making an alliance in the chamber.
Independent politicians are now set to become the second largest bloc after they won 12 seats and the two major Sunnis societies, Al Asala and the Islamic Menbar, suffered crushing defeats.
Al Seyadi last week lost and Ebrahim Sharif will now face off Ali Ahmad, the candidate from the Islamic Menbar, who edged him out 37.11 per cent to 31.26 per cent in the first round.
