MANAMA, Bahrain, Nov. 24 — For the past month, they have promised the world to voters in this tiny island kingdom off the east coast of Saudi Arabia: better housing, better jobs, higher salaries, and better services. One has even promised greater dignity.
But as more than 200 candidates vied for a seat in Bahrain’s 40-member elected Parliament, the one thing that many were not prepared to promise was far-reaching political change.
“When I speak to supporters, I feel I have to acknowledge, yes, not much is going to change,” said Sheik Ali Salman, the leader of the Wefaq National Islamic Society, Bahrain’s leading opposition movement, which is predominantly Shiite and is vying for 17 seats in Parliament.
MANAMA, Bahrain, Nov. 24 — For the past month, they have promised the world to voters in this tiny island kingdom off the east coast of Saudi Arabia: better housing, better jobs, higher salaries, and better services. One has even promised greater dignity.
But as more than 200 candidates vied for a seat in Bahrain’s 40-member elected Parliament, the one thing that many were not prepared to promise was far-reaching political change.
“When I speak to supporters, I feel I have to acknowledge, yes, not much is going to change,” said Sheik Ali Salman, the leader of the Wefaq National Islamic Society, Bahrain’s leading opposition movement, which is predominantly Shiite and is vying for 17 seats in Parliament.
“But I try to emphasize to people that you are better off having someone looking out for your interests within the system, even if he wins only small victories,” he said.
Bahrain goes to the polls Saturday to elect a new Parliament in an atmosphere of growing sectarian division and disillusionment. Tensions have been running high here, fueled by a widening economic disparity between the country’s minority Sunni population and its Shiite majority, as well as a growing frustration that long-promised changes have yet to materialize.
Just a few years ago, this island kingdom of 700,000 was hailed as a model of reform in the Arab world. King Hamad al-Khalifa ended a 25-year state of emergency in 1999, and was promising to turn Bahrain into a constitutional monarchy with a newly elected Parliament.
But the euphoria all but evaporated two years later, when the king broke his promises and imposed a constitution establishing a second, appointed legislative house that significantly curtailed the power of the elected one. Gerrymandering ensured a Sunni advantage in the elected house, too, prompting the predominantly Shiite opposition to boycott elections in 2002.
In the years since, Bahrain’s Shiites, who make up about 60 percent of the population, have been sidelined. They allege that the government has backed Sunni Islamists and encouraged increasingly sectarian politics. Activists here say they have uncovered a systematic effort to naturalize Sunnis from other Arab countries as well as from Southeast Asia; as an indication of the government’s intentions, they point to a polling place close to the causeway with Saudi Arabia where Saudis naturalized as Bahrainis can vote.
Tensions were heightened two months ago when a government adviser published a report outlining a conspiracy by senior government officials, including members of the royal family, to undermine the Shiites. Bahraini newspapers have been banned from discussing the so-called Bandargate scandal, named for the report’s author, Salah al-Bandar, and Web sites mentioning it have been blocked.
Nevertheless, Sheik Salman and the rest of the opposition have entered the race, insisting that some representation is better than no representation at all. Sheik Salman said that many Shiites had realized that their being out of the political process only allowed the government to promulgate laws that hurt the Shiites’ interests, including regulations limiting public gatherings and protests, as well as new terrorism laws that threatened to hamper the work of the opposition. “We won something and lost something by boycotting,” he said “People are now convinced that it is better to take part even if it has small advantages.”
Government officials hope the entry of the Shiites will serve to ease tensions. But opposition members say they intend to use their seats in Parliament as bully pulpits to goad the government into changing.
“I want to get inside to weaken the gates,” said Ibrahim Sharif al-Sayed, a Sunni opposition candidate with the National Democratic Action Society, which has campaigned in alliance with Wefaq. “We will be there to expose the government, not to legitimize it. We want to show why we have no power in this country. I intend to be a Trojan horse.”
But Mr. Sayed, a wealthy banker who has led a campaign to publicize the royal family’s seizure of coastal lands for personal benefit, said liberal Sunnis like him had faced the greatest battles during this election. He was the subject of a relentless smear campaign, waged through cellphone text messages and e-mail messages. He alleges that the government is behind the campaign.
“The government wants a polarized Parliament based on sectarian grounds,” he said. “They want to have a Sunni bloc and a Shia bloc which they can accuse of being tied to Iran. But we will get in the way of that agenda.”
Sheik Salman says he hopes that his involvement will win at least some good faith gestures from the government. Otherwise, he warns, the current tensions could explode in the future.
“People rightly feel depressed because they know that the change will be very, very limited,” he said. “But better slow, gradual advances than explosive change on the street.”
