Social media icon and TikTok star Saeed ‘The Legend’ Al Sammak will not contest the National Elections after he was disqualified by a court yesterday.
The controversial bird fodder store owner had hoped to represent Capital Governorate Constituency Six (Tashan, Jidhafs, Musala, Adhari, South Sehla and Tubli) in the parliamentary polls.
The 49-year-old, who lives in Khamis, was questioned by a prosecutor about previous drug convictions and if he knew how to read and write in Arabic.
“Mr Al Sammak was involved in up to six criminal cases including narcotics possession, fishing violations and not co-operating with the Coastguard,” the prosecutor said.
“In 2004, he was found guilty of possessing, using and trading narcotics after being arrested in 2002. He was given a three-year sentence which was then reduced to a year.”
Mr Al Sammak claimed that he was exonerated of the crimes.
He had to then undergo a literacy test where one of the three judges presiding over the hearing dictated a number of sentences to him.
This came after he reportedly failed his first reading and writing examination at the Capital Governorate’s Election Supervisory Centre in Khawla Secondary School for Girls.
Regardless of the result of the test or the criminal cases, Mr Al Sammak’s candidacy was dismissed on completely unrelated grounds.
Judges declared that the hopeful did not lodge his objection against the Legislation and Legal Opinion Commission’s decision, at the supervisory centre on time.
A former MP who was in office from 2011 to 2018 managed to remain in the race, however.
Ahmed Qarata seeks to return to Parliament to represent Capital Governorate Constituency Two (old Manama, Ras Rumman, Naim, Ghufool, Burhama, Salhiya and parts of Salmaniya). He successfully objected against his exclusion from the list of candidates who will contest in this year’s general election.
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