Electoral Process in Bahrain
The 2002 constitution grants the king power over the legislative, executive, and judicial authorities. The monarch appoints and dismisses the PM and cabinet members, who are responsible to him instead of the legislature. Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa (the uncle of the current king Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa) was the nation’s only PM between independence from Britain in 1971 and his demise in 2020. The crown prince and eldest son of the monarch, Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, was appointed PM that year, and he retained the role after a cabinet reshuffle post the 2022 parliamentary elections.
The 40-member Consultative Council (the upper house of the National Assembly) is appointed by the king. The Council of Representatives (lower house) consists of 40 elected members serving four-year terms. Formal political parties are not allowed, but members of “political societies” have taken part in elections. Elections for the council of representatives were held in November 2022. The polls were bereft of any competition due to bans on main opposition groups. A law approved in 2018 forbid the candidacy of anyone who belonged to dissolved political societies, had boycotted or been ejected from the parliament, or had received a prison sentence of minimum six months. Political societies in general performed badly in the 2022 elections, with most seats garnered by independents, including Sunni Islamists.
2022 elections were neither free nor fair. All members of previously dissolved political groups were forbidden from running in the elections. Not only elections, authorities have even sought to restrict former opposition members from coming close to civil society organizations. Independent media has been enduring ban since 2017. Prominent opposition personalities and human rights defenders, including Abdel-Jalil al-Singace and Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, remained imprisoned without access to adequate medical care.
Bahrain’s electoral framework is biased, with electoral districts purposely designed to underrepresent Shiites, who form a majority of the population but have never ever been able to obtain majority representation in the parliament. The government has also reportedly drawn district borders to put some political societies, including leftist and Sunni Islamist groups, at a disadvantage. The government directorate responsible for managing elections is headed by the justice minister, who is appointee of the crown prince, and it is not an autonomous body.
Voters’ passports are stamped to specify that they have voted, and there is a widespread belief that people who lack these stamps are at a far higher risk of being prevented from traveling. The government has earlier punished people who call for election boycotts.