Bahrainis have voted for a change, electing 33 new MPs to the 40-member Parliament.
That amounts to more than 75 per cent of sitting MPs being rejected by the electorate – prominent among them being Ammar Al Bannai, Ammar Al Abbas, Ali Ishaqi, Ebrahim Al Nafei, Kaltham Al Hayki, Sayed Falah Hashim, Abdulla Al Thawadi, Ahmed Al Amer, Ahmed Al Ansari and Ali Zayed.
Women and independents have also won big in Bahrain’s National Elections, with only two political societies winning four seats, according to our sister Arabic newspaper Akhbar Al Khaleej.
Eight women candidates cruised to election victory.
Counting continued through the night with municipal councils results expected this morning.
Bahrainis headed to polling centres yesterday to cast their ballots in the second round of National Elections.
The run-off was held for 34 Parliament and 23 municipal council seats.
A candidate had to secure at least 50 per cent of the vote to be declared the outright winner. When that didn’t happen, the top two candidates had to go head-to-head in a second-round run-off last night.
The second round of polls witnessed a good turnout of voters including the elderly, special needs and even those suffering from Covid-19 who visited different polling centres to cast their ballots
Six MPs and seven councillors were elected in the first round last Saturday. This included two women – Zainab Abdulamir (3,202 votes) who retained her Parliament seat for a second term from Capital Governorate constituency seven (Jid Ali, Jurdab and Al Nasfa), and Zaina Jassim who was re-elected for a municipal council seat from Northern Governorate constituency seven (Al Qaraya, west Janabiya, Buri and Hamala) with 2,729 votes.
A total of 15 women were contesting in the run-offs, including nine for Parliament and six for municipal councils.
The High Elections Committee last night congratulated His Majesty King Hamad and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Deputy King, on the success of the two-round 2022 parliamentary and municipal elections.
Early celebrations were witnessed in some parts of the country as jubilant supporters took part in car parades or danced the night away.
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