72 vie for BCCI seats

Manama : The Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) yesterday accepted the nominations of 72 candidates for the 29th BCCI board election scheduled for Saturday. 

The list was published as the submission period of the details of the candidates to the election committee ended yesterday at 2:00 pm.

Tojjar, Al Ghad, Sharaka and Tawoon are some of the blocs contesting the polls, while a handful of independent candidates are also running.

“The chairperson of the Election Committee, Jassim Abdul A’al, wishes all candidates every success, and extends his thanks to the Bahrain Chamber and its administration on their efforts to streamline the elections process,” BCCI said in a statement yesterday.

“A just and transparent election can be expected,” Jassim Abdul A’al stressed. 

Lawsuit dismissed

Meanwhile, in another development, a lawsuit filed against use of the BCCI election database was dismissed by a Bahraini Court on Wednesday. 

The lawsuit alleged that the BCCI database could be easily tampered with and manipulated. 

The lawsuit demanded to use the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism’s(MOIC) database for the election.

In a statement made earlier, Abdul’aal told DT News that the lawsuit was based on rumours. 

Won’t appeal: lawyer

Lawyer Saad Jaber Aldoseri, who represents the plaintiffs, told DT News yesterday that they will not appeal the judgement as BCCI election committee has confirmed on Friday that they will be using the databases of both MOIC and BCCI. 

“Regardless of whatever the reason was the case was dismissed, the fact that election committee has said that they will use MOIC database is of great relief to us. The objective of this lawsuit was to oblige BCCI’s elections committee to rely only upon MOIC’s official voter data, as per the directives of HRH the Prime Minister,” he said. 

“BCCI’s election committee said on 8 February 2018 that it would rely upon internal data to determine eligible voters, which led the group of business owners to file an urgent case to ensure only authoritative MOIC records would be used,” he said. 

“But following the statement by the BCCI elections committee chair last Friday, assuring the use of MOIC database, the plaintiffs have decided not to appeal the case,” he said. 

“Many keen voters will continue to closely monitor the progress of the elections, particularly in light of the importance of the BCCI’s general assembly which is the highest authority at BCCI,” he added.