MANAMA, 20 December 2006 — Sunnis took control of the three key posts in Bahrain’s Parliament yesterday as the Shiite bloc continued its boycott of the process.
Incumbent Speaker Khalifa Al-Dhahrani was reelected to his post despite earlier expectations that the role would fall to Ali Salman, who heads the 17-member bloc of the Shiite Al-Wefaq Islamic Society. Head of the Salafist Al-Asala Islamic Society Ghanim Al-Buainain won the post of first deputy, while the post of the second deputy went to Salah Ali, the head of the Al-Menbar Islamic Society. All three MPs won their posts uncontested.
Al-Wefaq, the largest coalition in the 40-member chamber, decided to boycott the opening session of the second term of the National Assembly in protest over what it said was governmental interference in distribution of posts to prevent them from holding key positions.
Salman also said that boycott came after the re-appointment of persons whose names appear in a controversial August report by the London-registered Gulf Center for Democratic Development.
The report, dubbed BandarGate after its co-author Salah Al Bandar — a Briton of Sudanese origin who was deported in September to Britain after its publication — alleged that a secret government grouping had been conspiring to rig the results of the Nov. 25 parliamentary and municipal elections.
