MANAMA, 17 October 2006 — A woman won a seat in Bahrain’s Parliament for the first time as registration for Nov. 25 elections ended late yesterday without a contest in her constituency, an official said.
“Only Latifa Al-Qouood remained as a candidate in the seventh constituency, making her a winner by law,” Ahdeyah Ahmed, spokeswoman of the election high committee, said.
Qouood reached the second round in Bahrain’s last legislative election but was eventually beaten by an Islamist candidate whose camp dominates the outgoing chamber.
Some 199 candidates, including 16 women, have registered for next month’s election to the 40-member assembly. Bahraini women were given the vote for the first time in a 2001 referendum which turned the small Gulf state into a constitutional monarchy.
Thirty-one women stood as candidates in municipal and parliamentary elections the following year but they failed to win a seat.
