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1 – Freedom of expression
2 – A large middle class
3 – Education
4 – Transparency

How many ticks do we have in the box.

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Can we say that both sides (the government and clerics) employed techniques inspired by the latter one of the above two sayings. One employed public money and appointed a master to spearhead the infamous “port” gate, in fear that the odds of the nubmers are against them; the other employed unfair clout.

The byproduct of both factors has stripped the long awaited domocratic process of all its potence, and has rendered it either as sham or some form that is akin to a ship that is adrift.

Now that the government has seen the bastard results of both ways of tending, I call upon it to come up with a good election law, and just run a proper democracy for a change.

I would even predict that the next Parliament would not finish its term, and it would be dismissed within twelve months or by 31/12/2007. The new, fair election law had better be in place before that time.

Well done CIB!

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I can’t imagine any parliament who votes to stop Bahraini girls getting car loans, learning to drive or wearing embroidery on their hijabs getting elected more than once.

There are more women in this country than men and they have the lions share of the brain cells and work ethic. So in couple of years you can kiss the Bahrain Talibani’s goodbye . . . . .

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The main benefit of democracy is also its weakness. Democracy is representatives of majority rule. If you have a weak majority, you will have a weak representation.

In our case, the people got what they wanted, even if they don’t know what’s good for them. You can blame it on upbringing, education, or brainwashing, but that doesn’t matter. These are the people of Bahrain and we need at least two more generations to come and go until the majority are liberally educated.

It gets worse when you consider the fact that even the MPs are blind followers. Al-Wefaq had access to some of the most educated and experienced people, yet they chose their candidates based on allegiance to Shaikh Isa Qassim. A small example of this is Abdulnabi Salman, who was approached by Al-Wefaq to be their representative, but he refused because he would have to follow the central authority. Look where that got him, despite being acknowledged as the stronger candidate, by far.

Hopefully, there will be some balance after the second round. I personally refuse any extreme, be it left or right, and things are looking a bit extreme with the current list of winners. At least 5 more liberals are needed to balance things out, and make sure we don’t have someone sitting at the top passing out Mandatory Hejab laws.

So to go back to your question, yes, our elections are free and free. The influences are not direct interference with the election because they are not technically forcing anyone to vote, but playing on deep rooted personal beliefs of people.

Democracy has won, the people have spoken, but unfortunately for us that victory has only shown us how unready for it we are. Are we still better off than having no elections at all? Of course we are. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the next four years.

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