Fair polling petition being sent to King
By Geoffrey bew
Published: 20 November 2006
Hundred parliamentary and municipal election candidates have signed a petition demanding fairer polls.
The document is to be sent to His Majesty King Hamad tomorrow, requesting that 10 general polling stations outside normal constituencies be scrapped.
Thirty-five people signed the petition at its launch at the Bahrain Medical Society, Juffair, last Wednesday, before it was circulated among other candidates.
Signatories say that only the 40 constituency polling centres should be open, because more centres will make it difficult to monitor the elections.
Fair polling petition being sent to King
By Geoffrey bew
Published: 20 November 2006
Hundred parliamentary and municipal election candidates have signed a petition demanding fairer polls.
The document is to be sent to His Majesty King Hamad tomorrow, requesting that 10 general polling stations outside normal constituencies be scrapped.
Thirty-five people signed the petition at its launch at the Bahrain Medical Society, Juffair, last Wednesday, before it was circulated among other candidates.
Signatories say that only the 40 constituency polling centres should be open, because more centres will make it difficult to monitor the elections.
The group also called for the presence of more of their representatives at polling stations.
They also sought to unify parliamentary and municipal election timings by increasing the number of hours for the latter.
Polling for municipal councils is from 8am to 6pm, while it is up to 8pm for parliament.
National Democratic Action Society secretary-general Ebrahim Sharif Al Sayed, whose organisation has backed the petition, is confident it will have a positive effect despite elections being just days away.
“It is difficult to say – I know the King has responded in the past to last-minute demands,” he told the GDN.
“If they continue with these public booths and poll results were decided by this and not at the specific booths in the district, it is going to cast a shadow over the results.”
Mr Al Sayed, who is the Capital Governorate’s constituency six candidate (for Umm Al Hassam and Mahooz), added there was little the candidates could do if the King rejected the petition. Among the societies backing the petition are the Al Wefaq National Islamic Society, National Democratic Grouping Society, Al Menbar Tribunal Democratic Progressive Society and the National Brotherhood Society as well as a number of independent candidates.
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