Closely contested second round of Bahraini elections begin
dpa German Press Agency
Published: Saturday December 2, 2006
Manama- Bahrainis are voting Saturday in the closely contested second round of parliamentary and municipal elections, amid new calls from the business community to shore up the economy. Last week’s voter turnout surpassed 72 per cent of the 295,686 eligible voters, representing an 18 per cent increase from the previous elections in 2002, but by mid-day Saturday only a fraction of the 123,000 thousand eligible voters had turned out to vote, according to High Elections Committee executive director Wael Buallay.
Closely contested second round of Bahraini elections begin
dpa German Press Agency
Published: Saturday December 2, 2006
Manama- Bahrainis are voting Saturday in the closely contested second round of parliamentary and municipal elections, amid new calls from the business community to shore up the economy. Last week’s voter turnout surpassed 72 per cent of the 295,686 eligible voters, representing an 18 per cent increase from the previous elections in 2002, but by mid-day Saturday only a fraction of the 123,000 thousand eligible voters had turned out to vote, according to High Elections Committee executive director Wael Buallay.
“So far we had 17,000 people casting their vote in the parliamentary elections and 22,000 in the municipal elections,” he said.
Bahrain’s largest Shiite Muslim opposition grouping, the al-Wefaq Islamic Society, secured a majority in the upcoming parliament after 16 out of its 17 candidates won the country’s first round of parliamentary election on November 25 last week.
The opposition, which is made up mainly of al-Wefaq and the leftist Democratic Action Society, also known as Waad (Promise), hopes to further increase their hold on the 40-strong member chamber as five of their candidates remain in the running for the eleven open seats.
Five of the eleven remaining constituencies are hotly contested by three of Waad’s candidates and two other candidates, including one from al-Wefaq and another independent opposition figure, who are running against candidates from or supported by the Sunni Muslim bloc.
The upcoming parliament fell into Islamists control in the first round of elections after 13 other Sunni MPs, representing the Islamic Brotherhood and Salafist movements, were elected alongside the Shiite candidates from al-Wefaq.
The business community – already apprehensive about Islamist control of parliament after a semi-confrontational stance between them and Islamists in the earlier parliament – called on the winners to distance the economy from internal political wrangling.
Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) chairman Esam Fakhro said the chamber was in support of having the opposition represented in parliament.
“Political stability will reflect positively on the economy, and priority should be given to developing the economy and encouraging investments,” he said.
This year’s elections, which marked the end of the opposition boycott to them, are the first in Bahrain’s history that political groupings are allowed to officially contest, with six such quasi- parties jumping into the fray.
This is the second time in four years that Bahrainis have gone to the polls after the king introduced sweeping reforms including the introduction of national elections after taking power in 1999.
© 2006 dpa German Press Agency
