Housing shortage is a key issue for October elections and there are only two bidders for the pilot scheme Bahrain’s plan to address its housing shortage using the private sector offers a neat solution to two of the country’s most pressing issues: the potential of civil unrest from the majority Shia population and a constrained [...]
Women’s leaders yesterday (aug 9) called on the government to throw its money behind female politicians. Political groups whose members include a female MP are currently entitled to BD500 from the Justice and Islamic Affairs Ministry. However, Supreme Council for Women (SCW) secretary general Lulwa Al Awadhi called for government cash to be injected into [...]
Parliamentary elections in Bahrain later this year will offer little to Shi’ite opposition groups pressing for more democratic reforms, and are unlikely to heal their rift with the country’s Sunni Muslim rulers.
One of Bahrain’s leading leftist parties is hoping to break the Islamists’ eight-year hold on power by fielding candidates to challenge their incumbents in this year’s election.
If successful, the move would shift the balance of power in the opposition coalition from conservative Islamists to the more liberal components of the coalition, including the Democratic Progressive Tribune Society, or Al Minbar.
Just eight women ran in Bahrain’s first general election in 2002, with the number increasing to 18 four years later. Despite a handful of close races in 2006, only one woman managed to secure a seat in the country’s fledgling parliament, after she ran unopposed.
But if May al Otaibi and others have anything to do with it, female candidates will have a good chance during Bahrain’s next general election slated for November 2010.
Eight Bahraini women have announced they intend to contest next year’s parliamentary and municipal elections, representing six per cent of total candidates. Four of the candidates have definitely made up their minds to stand – and the remaining four are considered potential candidates. Three are from the Muharraq governorate. Dr Aneesa Fakhro is seeking a [...]
A lawyer demanded in court yesterday that Bahrain’s electoral constituencies be scrapped. Abdulla Al Shamlawi is representing 31-year-old voter Matar Ibrahim Al Matar, who claims unfair constituency boundaries robbed his candidate of a parliamentary seat in the 2006 national elections. He has filed suit in the High Civil Administration Court, seeking the abolition of a [...]
A REPORT released yesterday criticised Bahrain’s national elections for failing to provide all voters with an equal voice. Large differences in size between constituencies meant the municipal and parliamentary elections were missing the “one man, one vote” principle, according to the report. It was compiled by election monitors from the Bahrain Transparency Society and the [...]
Bahrain’s highest court threw out yesterday a demand for a recount by a parliamentary candidate who official figures state only got four votes. Isa Al Harbi, who ran for the Southern Governorate’s constituency two, says he was not disputing that the contest was won by his rival Hamad Al Muhannadi, but he raised the case [...]
Defeated parliamentary candidate Dr Muneera Fakhro has filed a case claiming that winner Dr Salah Ali received illegal votes through Bahrain’s 10 general polling stations, it was announced yesterday. She claims that the difference was so dramatic that some votes may have been fabricated. Dr Fakhro received 331 votes through the open stations versus 1,191 [...]
