Finally, an official response to the various rumour mills about the elections in Bahrain. Although no date has actually been set yet, at least now we know that the elections will occur sometime this year. Which is a relief. Some thought that at least the parliamentary elections might get delayed a couple of years. Thankfully that doesn’t seem to be the case and my estimate is right smack-bang in the middle of when the government says that the elections must happen between (Aug – Dec ’06.)
So I’ll keep the countdown as it is; another 180 days or so to suffer these bozos and I hope and pray that at least the Islamists won’t see the inside of that chamber again… what with ALL of them proposing and supporting an amendment to the penal code to introduce the severing of thieves hands’ as a punishment, and fanning the flames of sectarian discord by the likes of an intellectually subnormal cretins like Al-Saidi and Mohammed Khalid.
Now, will the municipal and parliamentary elections be done on the same day? There is that possibility as the constitutional limits on when the elections for both should happen overlap in August. And August is a bad month in Bahrain, hot and it becomes a virtual ghost-town with everyone abroad on holidays.
Will the election districts be changed, so that the huge disproportionate representation between the more affluent south of the island when compared to the northern area?
Will the constitution be amended so that the Shura council contain less people than those elected in the House of Representatives? Or at least limit the Shura council’s authority?
Will the chair of the House of Representatives chair the joint sessions with the Shura council if and when a National Assembly is called for?
And most importantly will MPs be able to propose laws?
Too many questions and far too short a time left to get answers… What’s the government playing at?
Comments
I hope people learn from the mistakes they made while electing the previous representatives this time around. As for the case of certain “elected” people who have been (un)secretly flaming the fires of sectarianism in Bahrain, I – too – wish that they would just disappear, however, I don’t think we could get it that easy; sadly, there is a large number of people who are easily swayed to vote for such “religious” figures SOLELY on the premise of them using the “religion” card.
I remember in the student council elections for my highschool, as well as the two universities I attended (both outside of Bahrain), those voted by the students were not necessarily those who could have done a good job, but, those who were popular – for one reason or another. Whoever had the biggest CLIQUE won. You can even ask the “dictator” of a certain “superpower”; he’ll teach you how it’s done 😉
All I wish for is that the next group elected would be a truly educated and enlightened one; and one that TRULY values humanity, civil law and trying to take advantage of the potential in Bahrain and making the best of it. That and POSSIBLY them being given a LITTLE more leverage in making decisions.
Sidenote – I also hope the next group would not waste everyone’s time talking about a particular pop singer’s concert or TV shows that “promote immorality”. *Oh, Bother-dash*
I wish a website is run to inform people the TRUTH about the citizens running for parliment this year. This may help people to vote for the right people, and shed some light on some dark spots.
That would be an excellent suggestion. What we need is a good lobby structure, good funding and a few people not afraid to go out and ask questions…
I’m game! Now all we need more people and funding!
Yeah, actually I’ve been wanting to set up a databse like this ever since I saw this great site: Kuwait Politics Database. It would be great if we could do something similar to keep track of all the ministers and MPs, so that when election time comes along we can clearly see their record.
Does anyone know if the parliament’s voting records are available to the public? And I assume some folks have access to newspaper archives.