So, the scene so far looks like this:
The eighteen Wefaq candidates all got through on the first round, this increases Wefaq’s presence in parliament by one seat and solidifies its position as the largest political representation in parliament. The positions they will hold during this term will be interesting to witness, will they be allowed to hold the chairmanship I wonder?
Waad’s candidates Ebrahim Sharif and Dr. Munira Fakhro are through to the next round and they will run against Ali Ahmed (Minbar) and Ebrahim Al-Qadhi (Indepdentent) respectively. The third Waad candidate Sami Siyadi lost out to the independent and first term MP Othman Sharif.
The Muslim Brotherhood Minbar didn’t fair well this time with only one seat declared for Mohammed Al-Amadi for the Northern District Seven while three of their candidates lost out; Tariq Al-Shaikh lost out to Adel Al-Asoomi, Adnan Bumtaia lost out to Isa Al-Kooheji and Abdulrahman Al-Hasan lost out to Asalah’s Abdulhalim Murad.
The other four Minbar candidates got through to the next round; Ali Ahmed against Waad’s chief Ebrahim Sharif, Abdulbasit Al-Shaer against the independent Mahmood Al-Mahmood, Minbar’s chief Abdullatif Al-Shaikh against the independent Ali Zayed and Ebrahim Al-Hadi against Adnan Al-Malki.
The Salafi Asalah bloc also didn’t fair well this time; Hamad Al-Muhannadi, one of their “firebrands” in parliament has lost against first timer and independent Abdulla Huwail and their candidate Rashed Abdulrahman was trounced by independent Isa Kooheji. Two-termer Sami Buhairi fell against Sharikh Aldossary and Isa Abulfateh lost to Mahmood Al-Mahmood & Abdulbasit Al-Shaer who go through to the second round, this places him at least third in that race. The Asalah chief Ghanim Al-Buainain along with Ebrahim Busandal and Abdulhalim Murad got through on the first round, while Adel Al-Moawdah got through uncontested earlier.
Comments
Mahmood,
I think you mean Essa Al Qadhi, not Ebrahim.
There is a question:
Do the huge percentages of participation in the elections, and the strong presence of Al Wefaq in the parliament mean that the people are against the strategy undertaken by Al Wafa, Haq and Amal in boycotting the elections, and depending in “going down to the streets”?
Or is there no say about this, as people would do whatever is being told to them by Sh. Essa Qassim?
Author
Thanks for the correction re the candidate.
The vision is not very clear yet. With the outstanding results of Al-Wefaq, it seems that the “boycott” decision has become history and its adoption in retrospect was not the astute thing to do. They obviously now are fully committed to this “experiment” and I suspect that over the next few weeks we’ll see them fighting tooth and nail to take over the chairmanship of the council depending on the strength of their electors numbers.
The really surprising thing to me is how both Asala and especially Minbar has crashed and burnt! I am extremely pleased with this because hopefully now there will be less sectarianism and more actual legislation to be done in the council. The rhetoric should also been very much diluted as there are expected to be 11 independents in there who are leaning much more to an economic vision and veer more toward the government. They should be a stabelising force, one hopes.
The same goes for Al-Wefaq actually, with their current make-up with only two turbanned gentlemen, the remaining 16 – one hopes – are more pragmatic and want to get things going legislation wise. I think there will be serious attempts by them to mount a constitutional amendment or two in this term, that together with the reversal of contentious laws especially the ridiculous Terrorism law.
So far, I am actually – and surprisingly – much more hopeful for parliament than I ever was in the past!
“So far, I am actually – and surprisingly – much more hopeful for parliament than I ever was in the past!”
I hope you’re right Mahmood…I personally have lost faith in all of them.
Unless Muneera or Ebrahim make it, it’s just another case of 4 more years of the same…
People expect change from this parliament, but change needs to take time. And I don’t think that the Bahraini people are yet “politically” educated or in a mature stage. And people need to know that there is a difference in between attending rallies and calling for rights, and between dealing with a situation, were your opponent is somebody who wants to use every obstacle against you.
Regarding Al Minbar and Asalah, I don’t know what merits do they have in their performance since no critical issues had been addressed except for fighting alcoholics and the dark face of tourism on Bahrain, they’re better off out side the parliament.
I wish that Ibrahim Sharif and Muneera would win, but from looking at the number of votes they’ve received and comparing it with their opponents, the outcome wouldn’t be positive. Someone is trying hard to drop them down.
I hope Al Wefaq would do something and be a bit more aggressive.