Shura Council Delays BCCI Voting Law for Two Weeks

The Shura Council voted on Sunday to defer a decision for two weeks on a draft law that would change how many votes each member of the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry holds in elections based on its capital, after the Industry and Commerce Minister asked for more time to review the proposal.

The draft seeks to replace the existing vote-allocation schedule attached to Decree-Law No. 48 of 2012, shifting from the current system under Law No. 16 of 2020 in which voting power rises in steep jumps up to 256 votes for members with capital of BD5 million and above, towards a reworked scale with far fewer votes overall and more gradual steps between capital bands. Under the version sent to the Shura Council, the top bracket would carry 10 votes for capital of BD1,000,000,001 and above, with lower bands starting at two votes for undeclared capital up to BD19,999 and then increasing in single steps across higher ranges.

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Ghanim Al Buainain told the chamber during the debate that there had been a request to put a query to the Industry and Commerce Minister on points linked to how the draft would be put into practice, but that a reply had not been possible ‘for certain reasons’. He also said the past period had been taken up with work on directing subsidies and related matters.

Al Buainain said the Industry and Commerce Minister had asked, in a letter sent to the head of the committee, for the debate to be put off for two weeks ‘for further study’, and to gather the views of the relevant parties, including the government and the Chamber, so that a ‘full’ report could be prepared before a vote is taken.

Khalid Al Maskati, chairman of the Shura Council’s Financial and Economic Affairs Committee, said the panel was keen to examine bills and matters referred to it ‘with care and in full’. He said the committee had requested specific information from the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and had completed its report in recent weeks and submitted it to the Shura Council.

‘We have no objection to meeting the Industry and Commerce Minister to discuss the matter, then we will submit the report again,’ Al Maskati said.