‘Higher voter turnout’ predicted for Bahrain election

TDT | Manama                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com  

Staff Reporter

Majority of lawmakers did not establish a communication platform with their voters to address their grievances, an opinion poll in connection with the upcoming elections has revealed. The opinion poll was carried out by Derasat and the results of it were announced on Monday by the organisation.

According to the survey, 85pc of the participants believed that the Parliament has a substantial role to play in the nation’s progress.

“While 58pc of participants said that their MPs did not care much about the voters, 42pc responded otherwise. The disapproval and approval percentages were 55pc and 45pc respectively for the municipal council members.”

The survey also found that 62pc of the citizens expressed their satisfaction over the performance of the previous councils. The voters consider employment as the most serious topic during the upcoming elections, according to the opinion poll.

This was followed by infrastructure development. The opinion poll highlighted that the major qualities the voters would seek in their representatives were honesty, competence, education and decent background.

Most of the respondents were optimistic about the future parliament and municipal councils. Speaking about the opinion poll, Dr Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Chairman of Board of Trustees of Derasat, said the national survey showed overwhelming acceptance and enthusiasm from the part of the citizens to participate in the democratic process.

The campaign has entered full swing with candidates and their campaign teams stepping up all their efforts to ensure their victories. It is learnt that many candidates are visiting the voters in person apart from actively campaigning across social media platforms. The electoral supervisory committee earlier warned candidates against mudslinging and tarnishing each other’s personal image for the sake of electoral victory.

“Such activities will be seen as a grave violation and the candidates if proven guilty will face consequences,” the warning said. Close to 450 election observers have begun their poll duties as the election campaign season gradually enters the final phase.

The observers are representatives of Bahrain Lawyers Association, Human Rights Association, Bahrain Transparency Society, Manama Centre for Human Rights, the National Institution for Human Rights and many other related organizations.

The observers are monitoring the entire electoral process to ensure that fairness is maintained at various stages under judicial supervision. The 2022 electoral odyssey has been full of shocks and surprises as many high-profile candidates lost their electoral appeals filed before the judiciary.

The High Civil Court of Appeal rejected the appeal filed by four-time lawmaker Adel Al Asoomi against the decision of the electoral supervisory committee, which had earlier dismissed his nomination.

Mr Al Asoomi’s candidature was rejected by the electoral committee after accepting the claims in the complaint filed by his opposing candidate Murad Ali Murad regarding discrepancies over residency. Many other appeals were as well rejected by the court.

The appellants were Dr Sharaf Al Mazal, former lawmaker Ali Shamout and lawyer Muhammad Al Othman. Earlier, Dr Sharaf had filed nominations for contesting from the Fourth Electoral Constituency in the Northern Governorate while Mr Muhammed filed his papers for the poll battle from Fourth Electoral Constituency in Muharraq Governorate.

Mr Ali was a potential candidate from the Sixth Electoral Constituency in the Capital Governorate. The Kingdom will head to the polls on November 12 with a run-off fixed on November 19.