MANAMA, 26 October — Results from Bahrain’s first legislative elections in nearly 30 years showed a mix of Islamist and secular candidates winning seats, with two women securing places in run-off polls, officials said yesterday.
The election was a milestone for women as it marked the first time they had been empowered to vote and run for national office in the Gulf region. It was also a defeat for a boycott campaign that had argued the political reform process did not go far enough.
The Justice Ministry said that 19 candidates had been elected to the 40-seat Parliament, including three who ran unopposed. The remaining 21 seats will be decided in run-off elections scheduled for Oct. 31.
The elections themselves were celebrated as a major step toward democracy in Bahrain. Hundreds of Bahrainis drove around the capital in the early hours yesterday after Information Minister Nabil Al-Hamer said the turnout was 53.2 percent, a slight improvement on the 51 percent recorded in the municipal elections in May.
The United States was quick to applaud Bahrain’s first legislative elections since the 1975 dissolution of a parliament elected only two years earlier. "We applaud Bahrain’s commitment to political reform and we strongly encourage the Bahraini government to continue down this path," State Department spokesman Gregg Sullivan said.
Ali Salman, the leader of the Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society that spearheaded the boycott call, conceded yesterday that the elections were "fair overall."
"I congratulate the king on this democratic initiative," Salman said, said on the phone from Qatar, where he flew yesterday morning for a television broadcast.
Salman, however, cast doubt on the accuracy of the 53.2 percent turnout, saying he had expected a turnout of 25 percent and his group’s monitors had estimated it to be about 40 percent.
Salman said the electorate had been influenced by the king, who appealed to citizens to vote in a televised address on Monday. He also thought the turnout had been reinforced by "allowing the military to participate and by stamping the passports of Bahrainis who voted."
He said the stamping of passports, used as identification, had "put psychological pressure on the citizens to participate."
The authorities were jubilant over the perceived rebuff to the four opposition groups which had called for the boycott.
People took to the streets of Manama blaring car horns and waving national flags and posters of the king, Sheikh Hamad ibn Issa Al-Khalifa.
"This is a victory for our nation," said Hadi Al-Naem, a pedestrian who cheered the passing cars.
It was difficult to say whether secular or Islamist candidates were in the majority of the 19 elected legislators as most are new faces whose views are not known outside their districts. However, a leading analyst and political columnist, Mahdi Rabe’a of Al-Ayam newspaper, said yesterday that at least 10 of the winners were Islamists and the rest were secular politicians.
He said the Islamists belonged mainly to the groups Al-Asalah and Al-Menber Al-Islami, which are Sunni-dominated.
Sunnis form a slight minority of Bahrain’s 400,000 citizens and include the royal family among their members.
The fact that the boycott campaign was dominated by the majority Shiites has impeded their representation in the new Parliament, Rabe’a said.
The winners and potential winners include the heads of three Sunni political groups. Adel Adel Al-Muawda of Al-Asala and Salah Ali of the National Islamic Forum were elected in the first round, while Al-Shoura chief Abdul Rahman Abdul Salam seems assured of victory in the run-off. Seventeen other Islamists have a good chance of coming out on top in a runoff slated for Oct. 31. Most of them are well ahead of their nearest rivals.
The government has said it is not concerned about an Islamist victory. "We are all Muslim so I am not afraid of that," said Bahrain’s Crown Prince Sheikh Salman ibn Hamad Al-Khalifa.
Analysts said the onus was now on the government and the opposition to work together to ensure adequate representation for both main sects, despite the lack of mainstream Shiite parties in Parliament.
"The boycott weakened Parliament and was a golden opportunity for inexperienced candidates," said Bahraini analyst Jassim Hussein. "Now we have a house where 47 percent of the people are not represented. This is a negative development."
No woman won outright in Thursday’s polls, but two females are among the 42 candidates who will contest the run-offs.
The women who won places in the run-offs were Latifa Al-Qaoud, who seeks to represent a southern province, and Fouzia Ahmed Ruwaie, from a northern province.
Al-Qaoud, 46, is a single woman who heads the planning and development department in the Ministry of Finance. She holds an MBA degree from Nottingham University in Britain and pledged to uplift the status of Bahraini women.
The new assembly, which has a four-year mandate, is expected to hold its first session in December after the king appoints the 40-member upper house.
