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| Arabia |
| Bahrain candidate hopes to boost MP powers |
| 2010-10-31 |
| Bahrain’s opposition stood to capture an unprecedented half of the seats on Saturday in parliamentary polls which could also see a female candidate elected for the first time. Bahrain held the first round of parliamentary elections last week, in which the main opposition group Wefaq won all 18 seats it contested in the 40-seat assembly. Munira Fakhro, from the Waad group, is running in one of two key second-round races, held in nine districts in which no candidate obtained a majority in the first round. If Fakhro and another Waad candidate win their seats, the opposition would for the first time hold half of all seats, paving the way for more questioning of the government on alleged corruption and the extent of the ruling family’s land ownership. Wefaq and Waad would also team up in an attempt to expand limited powers of the parliament. Bills need to pass an upper house whose members are appointed by the king. ‘(The constitution) gives all power to the king instead of parliament,’ said Fakhro as she greeted voters who trickled into a school used as a polling station. She won 33 per cent of votes in the first round in her district in the centre of Bahrain last week, 10 per cent less than her rival, independent candidate Esa Al Qadhi. Waad fielded three candidates, one of whom lost last week. Fakhro said Waad would propose changing the districts and electoral rules to also increase the chances of female candidates running against Bahrain’s main political blocs. Waad is the only group that endorses female candidates. Mona Fadhel, a supporter of Fakhro and author on Gulf women’s political role, said women were quite active in community groups but had gained few official posts. ‘Their presence in the official institutions does not reflect the level of activities of women in politics,’ she said. Latifa Al Gaoud, an independent, is the first female member of parliament but she won her district — a strip of desert in Bahrain’s south — without any voting for the second time this year as she faced no other candidate. |
| Posted by:Steve White |