Bahraini voters ‘overwhelmingly excited’ to perform their democratic duties

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Report by Zahra Ayaz

Bahrain yesterday witnessed a grand celebration of its democratic process with legions of citizens across the nation casting their political rights to elect their parliament members and municipal councillors.

The electoral process could lead to run-offs in many districts on November 19 as independents and former lawmakers challenge incumbents for a seat in the chamber.

As per the electoral rules, a candidate must obtain more than half of the votes in a constituency to be elected. If no candidate achieves more than half the votes, the two candidates with the highest number of votes will go head-to-head in a run-off election.

Out of 507 candidates contesting polls, the largest number in the Kingdom’s history, 107 are women, reflecting the Kingdom’s women empowerment journey under the great leadership.

Bahrainis over the age of 20 who meet the legal requirements are eligible to cast their vote.

There were 55 voting centres across the Kingdom yesterday enabling the citizens to exercise their democratic rights.

Citizens who constitute the country's over 344,000-strong electorate who live overseas were able to cast their ballots at 37 diplomatic missions around the world on Tuesday.

“The number of Bahrainis who cast their votes at diplomatic missions exceeded the figures of the last elections in 2018.

The high turnout is a testament to the sense of responsibility and positive commitment of Bahrainis to exercise their constitutional rights and elect their representatives to the parliament,” said Nawaf Hamza, chairman of Bahrain’s high elections committee.

The next House of Representatives will have at least eight new faces after seven current members chose not to seek re-election and one was disqualified from contesting. Speaking to The Daily Tribune, Bahraini citizen Talal Al Malood, 45, said he is very proud to participate in the Kingdom’s democratic process.

“We have many candidates who have achieved milestones in various fields and I am pretty sure that the upcoming Parliament will be the best in history in terms of efficiency and accountability to the people.”

Another voter Saud Ali Azeez Ahmed said he is hopeful that almost all citizens would cast their democratic rights, for it is their important duty to elect their representatives.

“This is one part of the civilian right, where you have the choice to elect the representatives, who will be drafting laws for the nation.

Let's all perform this task effectively and wisely so that we have the best policymakers who are capable of drafting laws that will serve good to the citizens.”

First time voter Mohammed Bilal was overwhelmingly excited to cast his vote. “This is one of the proud moments of my life. The next parliament must focus more on the youth of this nation as they are the future.

The Kingdom’s youth are the brightest in the region and they have unmatchable capabilities. “With right policies in place, it can be turned into an IT hub of the region.

The basic Information Technology infrastructure and availability of talent serve as a prerequisite for the nation to rise and emerge a pioneer in IT and IT-related services.”

The voter turn-out in 2018 was 67 per cent, the highest level since the parliamentary and municipal elections began in the Kingdom in the year 2002.

According to a survey conducted by the Bahrain Centre for Strategic and International Studies (Derasat), between 63 per cent and 69 per cent of voters were planning to cast a ballot on the election day.

The survey said 85pc of the participants believed that