Parliament debates Bahrain Chamber voting rollback

TDT | Manama

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

Votes in the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry could be capped far lower under a draft law heading to Parliament on Tuesday, with MPs seeking to scrap the 2020 election scale that lets the largest firms cast up to 256 votes.

The bill would remove the voting ladder adopted in 2020 and bring back a low-vote schedule based on a company’s declared capital.

Under the law now in force, members with undeclared capital hold 2 votes.

The count then climbs fast: BD1–19,999 carries 4 votes, BD20,000–49,999 has 8, BD50,000–99,999 gets 16, BD100,000–499,999 has 32, BD 500,000–999,999 has 64, BD1 million–4.999 million holds 128, and BD5 million or more receives 256 votes. MPs proposing the change say the 2020 ladder gave large firms too much weight and left small and medium businesses short of a fair say.

Their explanatory note says the chamber used a low-vote approach from its founding in 1939, and argues for a return to that model on grounds of equality, transparency and non-discrimination. It also cites Article 18 of the Constitution, saying voting levels should not swing wildly with shifts in capital because a member’s standing in the chamber remains the same. Under the MPs’ draft schedule, firms with undeclared capital or up to BD 19,999 would stay on 2 votes.

The rise after that would be in small steps: BD 20,000–100,000 would get 3 votes, BD100,001– 500, 000 would have 4, BD500,001–1 million would have 5, BD1,000,001–5 million would have 6, BD5,000,001–100 million would have 7, BD100,000,001– 500 million would have 8, BD500,000,001–1 billion would have 9, and anything above BD1 billion would carry 10 votes.