Lateefa keeps her parliament seat as registration ends
Bahrain’s lower chamber will have at least one woman after incumbent lawmaker Lateefa Al Gaood carried the sixth constituency in the Southern Governorate where she ran unchallenged.
Al Gaood made history in 2006 when she became the first woman in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries to be elected to a parliament, even though she was unopposed after her challenger withdrew his candidacy.
Lateefa was one of only nine women who filed their papers to run in the elections on October 23, a figure that has sent ripples of shock among women’s rights activists and watchdogs who had high hopes that more women would contest and hopefully win in the quadrennial elections.
In 2002, the first elections to be held following a three-decade constitutional hiatus in the island kingdom, no woman was able to secure a seat in the lower chamber or municipalities.
Four years later, only Lateefa Al Gaood won a constituency although another woman, Muneera Fakhroo, an academic, narrowly lost in the second round to Salah Ali, a leader in the Islamic Menbar, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Muneera, from Waad, Bahrain’s largest liberal society, will be running in the same constituency next month amid higher hopes of winning the seat after Salah Ali said that he would not seek a new mandate.
Elections officials on Thursday evening said that 149 people, including nine women, had filed papers as candidates. Two applications were rejected.
Officials and elections hopefuls have three days to finalise the list of the candidates for the elections on October 23. A second round will be held on October 30 in the constituencies where no candidate received at least 50 per cent of the votes.
The number of independents was 99, the double of those nominated by their societies.
Al Wefaq, Bahrain’s largest society and biggest parliamentary bloc in 2006-2010, has 18 nominees, followed by Al Asala, the flagship of Salafism in Bahrain, and the Islamic Menbar with nine candidates for each of them.
Waad and the Progressive Menbar, the largest non-Islamist societies, have three candidates, while the Islamic Shura, the Islamic Saf, the National Liberal Thought Society, the National Dialogue Society and the Islamic League have one candidate each.
Bahrain has 18 registered societies and only Amal, the society representing mainly the Shirazis, said that it would not run in the elections.
Muharraq, traditionally the most politicized governorate, topped in the number of candidates with 37, ahead of the Central Governorate by one applicant. The Northern Governorate had 33, the Capital Governorate 24 and the Southern Governorate 19.
While Lateefa won her constituency for lack of challengers, Muharraq’s fourth constituency has nine contestants for a single seat.
Nine constituencies have two challengers, which rules out the possibility for a second round. Nine more constituencies have three challengers, while ten constituencies feature four contestants. Six constituencies have five challengers and four have six hopefuls.
Side bars: (Graphics)
1. Number of candidates:
Capital Governorate: 24
Muharraq Governorate: 37
Northern Governorate: 33
Central Governorate: 36
Southern Governorate: 19
Total: 149 (Two applications were rejected)
2. Candidates according to affiliations:
Independents: 99
Al Wefaq: 18
Al Asala: 09
Islamic Menbar: 09
Waad: 03
Progressive Menbar: 03
Islamic Shura: 01
Islamic Saf: 01
National Liberal Thought: 01
National Dialogue: 01
Islamic League: 01
(Rejected application not included)
3. Candidates according to gender:
Men: 138
Women: 09
