Manama: With only a few weeks for Bahrains quadrennial parliamentary and municipal elections, candidates are taking matters into their own hands, reaching out to voters in every possible way, combining traditional ways with modern technology.
Although the final list of the candidates will not be announced until November 7, hopefuls have opted to announce their candidacies and making promises.
From securing jobs for everyone to turning a sprawling town into a green-looking feast for the eyes, populist pledges are being made to woo voters.
Candidates are seeking to build on the lessons from the past four elections to win the hearts and minds of their constituents.
And the number of hopefuls informally announcing their intention to run is steadily increasing.
A headcount of those who have used newspapers or their social media accounts to share their parliamentary polls plans now stands at more than 300 candidates who will be vying for the 40 seats in the Council of Representatives, the lower chamber of the bicameral parliament, and for the municipal council seats.
The hopefuls are a mixture of familiar faces and newcomers, all making strong promises to improve living conditions, boost employment opportunities and improve infrastructure.
“I will harness all my efforts and professional experience in the service of citizens and in conveying their aspirations with all honesty and sincerity,” Waleed Al Thawadi said as he announced his candidacy.
“I will build on my close relations with the citizens to push for the enactment and amendment of existing laws in order to meet the requirements of our modern lives and fulfil the needs of the people.”
Aliaa Rashid Al Junaid, an architect, said she was confident about the chances of women winning seats this year.
“There have been tremendous efforts to empower women politically and there are now better opportunities for women to succeed in elections,” she said as she reached out to the public through her Instagram account.
“The workings of the parliament are the principal measure of democracy practices in a country. My electoral programme includes amending some laws that have direct impacts on citizens and on the future generations. The amendments will be based on surveys that comprise a wide spectrum of categories of various social and age levels in order to achieve the best results,” she said.
The polls committees will be signing up candidates from October 17 to October 21 and presenting their names to the public to check information or oppose candidacies from October 22 until October 24.
The final list will be announced on November 7 and the elections will be held on November 24. The second round will be on December 1 in constituencies where none of the candidates secured at least 50 per cent of the votes.
The Northern Governorate leads with 12 constituencies, followed by the capital, then eight in the Muharraq Governorate and also eight in the Southern Governorate.
Under Bahrains election law, a candidate must be a Bahraini citizen and must not hold a second citizenship, unless it is of a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country – Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The candidate must be at least 30 years old, read and write Arab fluently, have a free criminal record and must enjoy his or her full civil and political rights.
Naturalised Bahrainis can run only after 10 years have elapsed after they were granted the Bahraini citizenship.
Leaders and members of political societies dissolved by a final court judgement for grave violations of the countrys constitution or laws and those who deliberately attempted to stall the constitution or the parliament are barred from running in the elections.
The ban was introduced in June after lawmakers amended Article 3 of the 2002 law on political rights in the country.
