A recent report by Al Jazeera titled “US rights group calls for free and fair elections” includes a statement released by what is described as a “Bahraini-US” group, or one of Bahrain’s opposition organisations, calling for fair parliamentary elections in 2022.
Al Jazeera quoted this group as describing the 2018 Bahrain elections as a “sham”.
In fact, Citizens for Bahrain closely monitored these elections and highlighted high levels of public participation and genuine competition for many of the key seats, including in constituencies where opposition candidates had a record of strong performance.
Parliamentary life in Bahrain has experienced turbulent phases, including when in 2011 the opposition led by alWefaq Islamic Society withdrew from parliament. While alWefaq represented the largest bloc in parliament, its attempts to paralyse the parliamentary process failed. alWefaq’s seats were replaced in the subsequent by-election which led to the victory of three women in its constituencies, hence reflecting the society’s marginalisation of women, as their absence paved way for more women and moderate Shia figures to join parliament.
It is worth noting that alWefaq’s list of candidates never included a women, which is a reflection of the opposition’s religious, non-progressive, undemocratic standards. The opposition also persisted on boycotting the 2014 elections following joint calls by foreign embassies in Bahrain including the British and American embassy to join the elections.
Apparently, what is “sham” about the elections is the absence of the opposition. However, this fails to recognise that the opposition has sidelined itself by choosing a path of isolation rather than inclusiveness in the country’s democratic process.
The report also mentions that the current situation in Bahrain makes fair elections impossible, ridiculously implying that Bahrain is a war zone and a police state where people are deprived of basic human rights.
This indeed is a false implication which has no credibility for anybody who knows anything about Bahrain. Bahrain is a young democracy and our democracy is far from perfect. Different sides of the political spectrum should constructively work alongside each other to bring citizens’ concerns to the table. A policy of self-isolation has critically damaged the opposition and its sympathisers. The parliamentary elections in Bahrain have succeeded during the past few rounds, despite the opposition’s boycott.
The elections in Bahrain are far from sham and the conditions is starkly unlike what is mentioned in Al Jazeera’s predictably unfair coverage. Conditions in Bahrain do not make free and fair elections impossible.
Opposition sympathisers tend to be selective about their definition of fairness. They simply call it sham and unfair as the turnout does not reflect their ambitions. ADHRB and other opposition NGOs should put more effort into promoting moderate voices that represent them and supporting young candidates and women to run for elections rather than reflecting continuous support for an opposition that has failed itself, it’s supporters and the communities it represented in the parliament previously.
Bahrainis have moved on. This is a reality which should be faced by Bahrain’s opposition, “Americans” for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) and others. Neither the parliamentary process, nor the F1 or any other national event that adds value to Bahrain’s political and economic life will be halted following these calls for negative attention to the country.
Such organisations are simply attempting to damage the country and its citizens while failing to understand that the government will remain unaffected by these calls. We all have our concerns about the performance of the parliament, while some believe that MPs have been a failure, others do give credit for the positive performance of some MPs. And if we are concerned about the performance of the MPs then this is an issue we should face collectively as a society. We should work together in supporting young, progressive Bahrainis to run as candidates instead of assuming that the elections are sham and unfair. The failure of a candidate of our choice does not reflect the failure of the election process. This is simply how democracy works. We hope for a successful 2022 parliamentary elections with results that reflect a true representation of Bahraini society. We should all work together in bringing forward our concerns as Bahrainis by being part of the system, rather than isolating ourselves and pointlessly complaining to media organisations.