Monday, 27 November 2006
MANAMA (AFP) - Bahrain's Shia opposition has won at least 40 percent of seats in parliament in polls that attracted a high turnout, after a boycott of the last elections in 2002, official results showed Sunday.
Women fared less well at the polls, with only candidate winning a seat after having run unopposed before Saturday's polls.
The success of the opposition comes against the background of the Shia rise to dominance in Iraq.
Sixteen of the 17 candidates fielded by the Islamic National Accord Association (INAA) -- the main formation of Bahrain's Shia majority -- won seats in the 40-member parliament, according to the official results.
Senior election official Walid Buallai put the turnout at 72 percent.
The results give INAA control over 40 percent of the elected chamber, a share set to grow in a second round scheduled for December 2.
The 17th INAA candidate has gone into the second round. Two other Shia candidates who are also INAA members but ran outside the group's list will face each other in a runoff.
Sheikh Ali Salman, INAA's charismatic leader who led its electoral ticket and won a seat, had told AFP that all INAA candidates were expected to win by the second round.
"If this doesn't happen, it will be because of fraud," he said.
Three candidates of INAA's leftist ally, the National Democratic Action Association (NDAA), also went into the second round, but its woman candidate Munira Fakhrou lost to leading Sunni Islamist MP Salah Ali.
Fakhrou was earlier reported to be advancing to a second round with Ali.
NDAA's other candidates Abdulrahman al-Nuaimi, Ibrahim Sherif and Sami Siyyadi all advanced to the second round.
Meanwhile, the two main Sunni Islamist groups, which together had 13 seats in the outgoing chamber, clinched eight seats in the first round, with three others reaching the next round.
The National Islamic Tribune Association -- which represents the Muslim Brotherhood -- retained four of seven seats, while the Salafi Assala (Authenticity) Association held two of six seats and won two others.
The remaining seats were won by independents, while 10 seats are to be re-contested.
A high-ranking official hailed the results as proof of the transparency of the elections. The opposition had accused the government of plotting to rig the vote to maintain control through pro-government MPs.
"This result confirms with no doubt the soundness and transparency of the Bahraini elections ... All we care about is that all (Bahrainis) take part in democratic life," he told AFP.
But the elected chamber will have to cohabit with an upper chamber appointed by King Hamad, and share its legislative powers.
Newspapers and state-run television pointed out that the 72 percent turnout was 18 percent higher than at the last polls in 2002, which were boycotted by the Shia and leftist opposition.
Some 295,000 voters were entitled to elect 39 MPs, or one for each constituency, out of a total of 206 candidates, including 16 women.
One seat already went to Latifa al-Qouhoud who stood unopposed in her constituency, making her the first woman MP in Bahrain's history. But all other female candidates were eliminated in the first round.
Voters also cast their ballots in simultaneous municipal elections to choose 40 members for five municipal councils.
Some 2,000 demonstrators on Friday called for a probe into an alleged plot aimed at marginalizing Shias and demanded the resignation of long-serving Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa.
Tehrantimes.com
27.11.2006
