Posted in: Last update:
Dubai (AFP) – The results of the vote-counting in Bahrain’s parliamentary elections saw six candidates, including a woman, win seats in the first round, while the competition will go to runoff next Saturday for the remaining 34 seats, according to authorities on Sunday.
Bahraini voters cast their votes in polling stations across the kingdom on Saturday in new parliamentary elections that saw a record number of candidates compete, but in the absence of two main opposition groups that were disbanded years ago.
And Bahraini Justice Minister Nawaf bin Mohammed Al-Maawda announced in a press conference shortly after the end of the electoral process, which also involved the municipal council, on Saturday night that the turnout rate had reached 73 per percent, which is “the highest participation rate since 2002.”
“There have been no recorded violations affecting the integrity of the electoral process,” he added.
More than 330 candidates, including 73 women, competed for 40 seats in the House of Representatives, which advises Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, who has ruled the country since his father’s death in March 1999. The number of candidates in the last elections of 2018 there were 293 people present, of which 41 were women.
The number of registered voters in the Gulf kingdom is around 350,000 out of a population of around 1.4 million.
Sunday’s results showed that six candidates won seats after winning enough votes in their constituencies, i.e. half plus one, with the remaining seats vying for next Saturday’s runoff.
The two main opposition groups, the Shia al-Wefaq and the secular Wa’ad, were prevented from fielding similar candidates in the 2018 elections, due to the dissolution of the first assembly in 2016 and the other in 2017, which left them driven to summon on voters to boycott the election.
This is the third election since the events of 2011, when Bahrain, located between Saudi Arabia and Iran, saw demonstrations calling for a constitutional monarchy and other political reforms.
Amnesty International said on Thursday the elections were taking place in an “environment of political repression”.
However, a Bahraini government official said in a statement to Agence France-Presse on Saturday that “the exercise of political rights in Bahrain is protected by the constitution, except in cases where the requirements for appointment are not met.”
The requirements include “not having a criminal record or not belonging to a group that has been dissolved due to its involvement in acts of violence that run counter to legitimate political activity,” according to the official, who also stressed that “the right to voting is also a constitutional right, but it is not an obligation: no one is penalized for having chosen not to “vote”.
Bahrain, headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet, frequently accuses neighboring Iran of training armed groups to cause unrest, an accusation Tehran denies.
© 2022 AFP
