Al-Ahram Weekly | Region | Choppy reforms

		24 - 30 October 2002 Issue No. 609 Region	Current issue Previous issue Site map
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Choppy reforms

photo:Reuters

BAHRAINIS will go to the polls today (Thursday) to choose a parliament for the first time in 28 years. However, the poll has already been overshadowed by a boycott call issued by four political groups.
The polls are part of a reform programme initiated in 2000 by King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa. These are partly aimed at giving the Shi'ite Muslim majority a larger say in the affairs of the kingdom. Bahrain has been ruled for centuries by the Sunni Muslim Al-Khalifa family.
Representatives of the groups planning to boycott the elections are unhappy at an amendment to the 1973 constitution, stipulating that legislative power will be evenly split between an elected chamber and a consultative council appointed by King Hamad.
They are also displeased that the division of the tiny Gulf archipelago into 40 constituencies did not take demographics and the size of each electoral area into account, arguing there will be a situation whereby some MPs are elected by 12,000 voters and others by only 500.
The parties include the influential Shi'ite Al- Wefaq National Islamic Society and the Islamic National Accord Association (INAA), the main political formation of Bahrain's majority Shi'ite Muslim population, which was at the forefront of violent protests against the island's ruling Sunni minority in the 1990s. Last month, both parties announced that they would boycott elections.
They were joined by the leftist National Democratic Action Association (NDAA) and the Nationalist Democratic Rally (NDR, who are pan-Arab nationalists.)
In a nationwide address, King Hamad urged these parties to reverse their decision, saying no one should abandon the nation's progress.

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