Bahrain post-election cabinet due Monday
Sat Dec 2, 10:01 AM ET
A new cabinet will be unveiled in Bahrain and will include a minister close to the Shiite opposition which made sweeping gains in parliamentary elections, a senior Bahraini official has said.
Some three incumbent ministers will be dropped from the new lineup and four new faces brought in, the official told AFP, requesting anonymity on Saturday.
The newcomers will include a technocrat close to the Islamic National Accord Association (INAA), the main Shiite opposition group which won 16 seats in the 40-member parliament in the first round of elections on November 25 and was assured of clinching at least one more in the second round on Saturday, the official said.
Bahrain post-election cabinet due Monday
Sat Dec 2, 10:01 AM ET
A new cabinet will be unveiled in Bahrain and will include a minister close to the Shiite opposition which made sweeping gains in parliamentary elections, a senior Bahraini official has said.
Some three incumbent ministers will be dropped from the new lineup and four new faces brought in, the official told AFP, requesting anonymity on Saturday.
The newcomers will include a technocrat close to the Islamic National Accord Association (INAA), the main Shiite opposition group which won 16 seats in the 40-member parliament in the first round of elections on November 25 and was assured of clinching at least one more in the second round on Saturday, the official said.
He will be given the trade and industry portfolio, the official added.
The reshuffle will feature the appointment of a minister of state for defense affairs to assist the defense minister for the first time.
A member of the outgoing appointed upper house of parliament will be given the portfolio of municipal and agricultural affairs, while the incumbent minister Ali Saleh al-Saleh will become the house’s speaker.
The Islamic affairs ministry will be abolished and its functions given to the Higher Islamic Council currently chaired by Deputy Premier and Islamic Affairs Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Khaled al-Khalifa, according to the official.
Other changes will affect the ministry of justice and the ministry of electricity and water, which is likely to be merged with another ministry. Jawad al-Orayedh, a former minister, will be named deputy prime minister and put in charge of parliamentary affairs.
The new cabinet, which will be headed by Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, who has been prime minister since independence in 1971, will take the oath of office before King Hamad on Tuesday.
The incumbent cabinet will step down on either Sunday or Monday, the official said.
The Bahraini monarch is due to open the first session of the new parliament on December 14.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Questions or Comments
