The Kingdom of Bahrain is ruled by King Hammad bin Isa Al Khalifa. The constitutional monarchy will be scheduling its general elections in November 2022. The 2022 Bahrain elections will not truly be fair and free unless and until the opposition parties are allowed to contest the elections.

Some progress

The Bahrain government has made significant progress in implementing more human right friendly laws such as the introduction of ‘alternative sentencing law’. The new law has reinstated 551 citizens with their citizenship and released many political prisoners such as the leader of the secular Wa’ad opposition party, Nabeel Rajab. However, Article 3 of Laws on Exercising political rights as amended in 2018 prohibits former members of banned political societies to contest for elections. The Bahrain governments have  been dissolving opposition political parties such as Al-Wefaq (the largest opposition group or “political society”) and Wa’ad on grounds of inciting violence and terrorism.

Furthermore, the imprisonment of Wefaq leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, in 2015 clearly contravenes Article 22 of the international covenant on civil and political rights. The imprisonment of the Secretary General of Al-Wefaq is extremely discouraging. His lack of participation in the forthcoming election is destructive to the very foundation of democracy. The Next Century Foundation would like to respectfully appeal to the Bahrain government to overturn Article 3 and allow formerly dissolved opposition parties to contest the elections. The lack of opposition participation in elections means lack of representation of different religious, gender, ethnicity and other social cleavages.

The measures have effectively reduced the powers to pushback against government policies. In 2014, major five opposition societies including al-Wefaq and Wa’ad, decided to boycott the election on the grounds that the elections were unfair and an attempt to establish ‘absolute rule’ in Bahrain. If the opposition parties fail to participate, that decision may arguably reflect badly on them. But to stop them participating is an action that reflects badly on the government.

Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering is practice of drawing the boundaries of electoral districts in a way that gives one political party an unfair advantage over its rivals. The majority population follow Shi’ite Islamic tradition while minority population including the royal family follow the Sunni Islamic tradition. The sectarian politics is expressed spatially. The proportional representation has been fixed geographically: The Capital (10 MPs), Muharraq (8 MPs), Northern (12 MPs) and Southern (10 MPs).  The total governorates have 40 unequal electoral districts. The unequal size is concerning as not all voters are given equal opportunity to influence the choice of representatives.

The Government added a municipality in 2002 in a redistricting process that created additional cleavages that don’t allow the opposition parties to contest for majority.

The settlements with majority Shi’ite population are underdeveloped and are typically populated around the Northern governorate. However, their lack of political participation in recent time is indicative of a lack of trust. The unfair electoral process and lack of opposition participation is a recipe for second Arab Spring in Bahrain.

Conclusion

The only solution to promote peace and harmony in Bahrain is, as a minimum, to dissolve Article 3 and allow former opposition political members to contest the elections as independent candidates.

The Bahrain government needs to realise that the sectarian politics and lack of political dissent makes every step it takes to improve its human rights less effective than it might otherwise be. We hope that overturning such laws is the first step towards a free and fairer election.