Political Marketing and Women Candidates in the 2014 Parliamentary Election in the Kingdom of Bahrain

POLITICAL MARKETING AND WOMEN CANDIDATES IN THE 2014 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION IN THE KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

ABDULWAHAB YUSUF EBRAHIM A. AZIZ AL JAWDER

UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA 2018

POLITICAL MARKETING AND WOMEN CANDIDATES IN THE 2014 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION IN THE KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

ABDULWAHAB YUSUF EBRAHIM A. AZIZ AL JAWDER

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

August 2018

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, all praise be to Allah SWT for giving me the determination and patience to complete this work. I would like to express my profound gratitude to my supervisor Associate Professor Dr. Khairiah Salwa

Mokhtar, for her patience, encouragement, motivation, immense knowledge and unflinching support throughout my PhD study. Her guidance helped me throughout the research and writing of this thesis.

I should convey my appreciation with bunch of roses to the informants for devoting a portion of their valuable time, cooperating during the interviews and providing me with all useful information relating to their election campaigns. I sincerely extend my thanks to the School of Distance Education of the Universiti

Sains Malaysia and its staff for providing all possible supports to conduct the research.

Special thanks and gratitude to my brothers Sheikh Salah Al Jowder, Ibrahim

Al Jowder and MP Ali Bu Fersin who paved the path of golden opportunities for me to meet and interview the informants during this research.

I am equally indebted to my friend Dr. Azzam Khalid Abdul Hakim, who recommended that I should undertake this PhD study at USM and remained encouraging and supportive throughout the journey.

Finally, I would like to pray for my parents who passed away during this study. May Allah shower His Mercies and Blessings on them and unite them with the righteous, Aameen. Also, I would like to express my gratitude to all my brothers and sisters and their children and my wife who supported and encouraged me throughout this study.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgment ii

Table of Contents iii

List of Tables xii

List of Figures xiii

List of Plates xv

List of Abbreviations xvii

Abstrak xviii

Abstract xx

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study 1

1.1.1 Political Structure in the Kingdom of Bahrain 5

1.1.2 Political Societies 5

1.1.3 Parliamentary Elections 6

1.2 Political Marketing 8

1.3 Statement of the Problem 9

1.4 Research Questions 10

1.5 Objectives of the Study 10

1.6 Methodology 11

1.7 Theoretical Framework 12

1.8 Operational Definitions 13

1.9 Significance of the Study 16

1.10 Scope of the Study 17

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1.11 Limitations of the Study 17

1.12 Organisation of the Thesis 18

CHAPTER 2 – THE KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN (KoB)

2.0 Introduction 19

2.1 Geography of the KoB 19

2.2 History of the KoB 22

2.3 Demography of the KoB 25

2.4 Economic and Social Issues 27

2.5 Political Structure in the KoB 29

2.6 Democracy vs. Shura 32

2.7 Political Societies 34

2.8 Women in Politics in the KoB 35

2.9 Women’s Political Rights in the Constitution of the KoB 36

2.10 Supreme Council for Women (SCW) 39

2.11 Parliamentary Elections in the KoB 40

2.11.1 Parliamentary Election – 1973 41

2.11.2 Parliamentary Election – 2002 41

2.11.3 Parliamentary Election – 2006 43

2.11.4 Parliamentary Election – 2010 46

2.12 Reflections on the Parliamentary Elections 49

2.13 Summary 50

CHAPTER 3 – LITERATURE REVIEW

3.0 Introduction 51

3.1 Arab culture 51

3.2 Women’s Political Rights in Islam 53

3.3 Arab-Muslim Culture 57

3.4 Definitions of Marketing 59

3.4.1 Social Exchange Theory 60

3.4.2 Relationship Theory 62

3.4.3 Marketing as a Managerial Process 64

3.5 Reviews on Political Marketing 65

3.5.1 Definition of Political Marketing 66

3.5.2 Political Stakeholders 70

3.5.3 Evolution of Political Marketing 72

3.6 Similarities and Differences between Commercial and Political Marketing 73

3.7 Political Product 75

3.8 Political Branding 80

3.9 Political Marketing 83

3.10 Political Communication 84

3.10.1 Culture in Political Communication 89

3.11 Strategic Political Marketing 89

3.11.1 Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning 91

3.12 Models of Political Marketing 95

3.12.1 Advantages and Disadvantages of POP, SOP and MOP 98

3.13 Countries’ Perspectives of Political Marketing 100

3.14 Summary 107

CHAPTER 4 – METHODOLOGY

4.1 Introduction 108

4.2 Research Strategy 108

4.2.1 Qualitative Approach 109

4.2.2 Inductive Reasoning 112

4.2.3 Exploratory Research 113

4.3 Grounded Theory 113

4.4 Procedure of the Grounded Theory in this Study 115

4.4.1 Population of the Study 115

4.4.2 Sample of the Study 117

4.4.3 Ethical Considerations 120

4.4.4 Data Collection 121

4.4.4(a) Interviews 121

4.4.4(a)(i) Topics of the Interviews 123

4.4.4(b) Identifying Documents 123

4.5 Validity and Reliability 125

4.5.1 Triangulation Strategy 125

4.6 Pre-Analysis Process 127

4.7 Writing Memo s 129

4.8 Analysing data for the main Study 129

4.8.1 Open Coding 130

4.8.2 Constant Comparison 131

4.8.3 Categorizing and Axial Coding 134

4.8.4 Theoretical Saturation 139

4.8.5 Theoretical Coding 140

4.9 The story line 140

4.10 Evaluation the informants’ political marketing strategies 143

4.11 Summary 143

CHAPTER 5 – FINDINGS

5.0 Introduction 145

5.1 Who has the Right to Stand for Parliamentary Elections? 145

5.2 What is Political Marketing? 149

5.3 Political Environment 153

5.3.1 Political Societies Boycott the Election 154

5.3.2 Boycott of Voters 155

5.3.3 Cancellation of Wusta Governorate 156

5.3.4 Al Wefaq Domination 157

5.4 Cultural Factor 158

5.4.1 Masculinity 158

5.4.2 Tribalism 160

5.4.3 Uncertainty Avoidance 161

5.4.4 Collectivism 162

5.4.5 Welayat Al Maraa’ (The Rule of Women) 163

5.5 Empowerment Programs of SCW 164

5.6 Summary 169

CHAPTER 6 – FINDINGS- Behaviour of the Informants in Election

6.0 Introduction 170

6.1 Behaviour of the Informants before Election 170

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6.2 Designing the Political Product 171

6.2.1 Electoral Programs 172

6.2.2 Slogans 174

6.2.3 Advertisements, Posters, Banners and Brochures 175

6.2.4 Appearance of the informants 177

6.3 Market Intelligence 178

6.3.1 Survey 179

6.3.2 Data Collected by Relatives and Relations 181

6.3.3 Official Statistics 182

6.3.4 Observing Marketplace 183

6.3.5 Data from Media 184

6.4 Strategic Marketing 184

6.4.1 Market Segmentation 184

6.4.2 Demographic Segmentation 186

6.4.3 Political Orientation Segmentation 188

6.4.4 Segmentation based on Media Followers 189

6.5 Informants during the Election 191

6.5.1 Informants activate their Relationships 191

6.5.1(a) Family 192

6.5.1(b) Relatives 193

6.5.1(c) Social Figures 194

6.5.1(d) Friends 195

6.5.1(e) People who work in the Media 196

6.5.1(f) Politicians 196

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6.6 The Informants started their Election Campaigns 197

6.6.1 Targeting the Required Market 201

6.6.1(a) Targeting Young Voters 202

6.6.1(b) Targeting old Voters 204

6.6.1(c) Targeting male Voters 205

6.6.1(d) Targeting Women Voters 206

6.6.1(e) Targeting Voters who Follow Social Media 207

6.6.1(f) Targeting Loyal and Hesitant Voters 208

6.6.1(g) Targeting Social Figures 208

6.6.1(h) Niche Markets 209

6.6.1(i) Mass Market 209

6.7 Political Communication 210

6.7.1 Interactive Communication 212

6.7.1(a) Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh (Tent) 213

6.7.1(b) Meeting Voters 217

6.7.1(c) Visiting male Community (Majlis) 218

6.7.2 One-Way Communication 220

6.7.2(a) Posters and Banners 221

6.7.2(b) Newspaper 224

6.7.2(c) Word-of-Mouth 227

6.7.2(d) Short Message Services (SMS) 228

6.7.3 Social Media 228

6.7.4 Political Branding 235

6.7.5 Introducing Product 239

6.7.5(a) Appearance of the Female Candidate 239

6.7.6 Supporters of the Female Candidates 248

6.8 Polling Day 257

6.9 End of the First Round of Election 261

6.10 Threats in the Informants’ Campaigns 262

6.11 Second Round of Election 264

6.11.1 Strategies of the Informants in the Second Round 264

6.11.1(a) Alliance Strategy 265

6.11.1(b) Increasing their appearance 266

6.11.1(c) Targeting the Voters who believe in Women 267

6.11.1(d) Targeting Voters through the Media 267

6.12 Post-Election 268

6.13 End of the 2014 Parliamentary Election 273

6.14 Framework for female candidates in elections 274

6.15 Summary 278

CHAPTER 7 – DISCUSSION

7.0 Introduction 280

7.1 Descriptive Framework 280

7.2 Explanatory Framework 282

7.2.1 The Power of Relations 283

7.2.2 Stakeholders 288

7.2.3 Segmenting Voters 289

7.2.4 Political Communication 290

7.2.5 Strategies of the Informants in the Election 290

7.3 Evaluating the Strategies of the Informants 292

7.3.1 Strengths 293

7.3.2 Weaknesses 294

7.3.3 Opportunities 296

7.3.4 Threats 296

7.4 Summary 297

CHAPTER 8 – CONTRIBUTIONS, LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

8.0 Summary 299

8.1 Contributions 301

8.1.1 Theoretical Contributions 301

8.1.2 Methodological Contributions 303

8.1.3 Practical Contributions 303

8.2 Limitations 306

8.3 Avenues for Future Research 307

8.4 Conclusion 308

REFERENCES 309

ARABIC REFERENCES 327

APPENDICES

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 1.1 Women Representation in the World’s Parliaments, 1997-2014 2

Table 1.2 Arab Women Representation in Arab Countries’ Parliaments, 1997-2014 3

Table 1.3 Women Representations in both Houses in the GCC, 2011 3

Table 1.4 Women Representations (Majlis Annwab) in Bahrain, 2002 6

Table 1.5 Governorates and Constituencies in Bahrain, 2014 7

Table 2.1 Candidates and Governorates in 2002 Parliamentary Election 42

Table 2.2 Candidates and Governorates in 2006 Election 44

Table 2.3 Candidates and Governorates in 2010 Election 46

Table 2.4 Candidates and Governorates in 2011 Supplementary Parliamentary Election 49

Table 3.1 Slogans of Female Candidates in the 2002 Senate Elections, USA 79

Table 4.1 Population of the Study 116

Table 4.2 Profile of the Sample of the Study 118

Table 4.3 Informants’ Political Participation 119

Table 4.4 Items related to the Parliamentary Election in Akhbar Al Khaleej and Al Ayam 125

Table 4.5 Codes name and Codes Location 132

Table 6.1 Slogans of the Informants 174

Table 6.2 Share of Female Candidates’ Items in Akhbar Al Khaleej and Al Ayam 241

Table 6.3 Appearance of the Informants in Akhbar Al Khaleej and Al Ayam 243

Table 6.4 The 6 Female Candidates who contested in the Second Round 262

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LIST OF FIGURES

Page

Figure 1.1 Theoretical framework of the study 12

Figure 2.1 Location of the Kingdom of Bahrain 19

Figure 2.2 Map of the Kingdom of Bahrain, 2012 20

Figure 2.3 Governorates of the Kingdom of Bahrain in 2002 21

Figure 2.4 Authorities in the Kingdom of Bahrain 30

Figure 3.1 Numbers of Active users on Social Media 88

Figure 3.2 POP, SOP and MOP Model 97

Figure 4.1 Strategy and method of the Research 109

Figure 4.2 Grounded Theory Procedure of the Study 115

Figure 4.3 Female Candidates’ Results in 1st and 2nd Round of the Parliamentary Election 116

Figure 4.4 Female Candidates and Governorates 117

Figure 4.5 Triangulation used in the study 127

Figure 4.6 Informants’ Model of Political Marketing in the 2014 Parliamentary Election 140

Figure 5.1 Female and male candidates in Governorates in election 2014 146

Figure 5.2 Female Candidates in Asemah Governorate 147

Figure 5.3 Female Candidates in Muharraq Governorate 147

Figure 5.4 Female Candidates in Shamalyeh Governorate 148

Figure 5.5 Female Candidates in Janubeyah Governorate 148

Figure 5.6 Informants Perception about Political Marketing 149

Figure 5.7 Informants and Political Environment 153

Figure 5.8 Informants and the culture 158

Figure 5.9 Informants and the SCW workshops 166

Figure 6.1 Informants and Political Product 171

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Figure 6.2 Informants and Market Research 179

Figure 6.3 Informants and Market Segmentation 185

Figure 6.4 Informants and Demographic Segmentation 186

Figure 6.5 Informants and Political Orientation Segmentation 188

Figure 6.6 Informants and Media Followers’ Segmentation 190

Figure 6.7 Informants and their Relations 192

Figure 6.8 Informants and Targeting the Voters 201

Figure 6.9 Informants and the three Types of Communication 212

Figure 6.10 Informants and Interactive Communication 213

Figure 6.11 Informants and one-way communication 221

Figure 6.12 Informants and Social Media 228

Figure 6.13 Informants and Branding 236

Figure 6.14 Share of appearance of the Female Candidates in Akhabr Al Khaleej and Al Ayam 241

Figure 6.15 Appearances of the Informants in Akhabr Al Khaleej and Al Ayam 242

Figure 6.16 Informants and Support 248

Figure 6.17 Informants and Threats 262

Figure 7.1 Descriptive Framework 280

Figure 7.2 Explanatory Framework 283

Figure 7.3 Categories of Stakeholders of the Female Candidates 288

Figure 7.4 Political Communications and Voters’ Segments 290

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LIST OF PLATES

Page

Plate 1.1 Women Participation in Bahrain’s Municipal Elections in 1928 4

Plate 2.1 Government’s Slogan in 2014 Elections 29

Plate 2.2 Cartoon showing situation of female candidates during the 2006 Parliamentary Elections 45

Plate 5.1 SCW Workshop on Political Empowerment for Bahraini Women 165

Plate 6.1 Electoral Program on Poster of a Female Candidate 172

Plate 6.2 Electoral Program on a Female Candidate’s Instagram Account 173

Plate 6.3 A Slogan of a Female Candidate on Poster 175

Plate 6.4 Posters and advertisements of the Candidates who Contested Parliamentary Election 198

Plate 6.5 Small and big Tents (Khaimah Intekhabyeh) 214

Plate 6.6 Inside Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh 216

Plate 6.7 Two Female Candidates give Speeches in Men Majlis 219

Plate 6.8 Poster of a Female Candidate on the Street 222

Plate 6.9 Poster of a Female Candidate on a wall 222

Plate 6.10 Poster of Group of Nominated Candidates of NUA 225

Plate 6.11 Account of a group on Instagram posted message of two Female Candidates 229

Plate 6.12 Female Candidate used full page in Akhabr Al Khaleej 245

Plate 6.13 Ten Candidates Appeared in one Advertisement 246

Plate 6.14 Female Candidate Located her Image and Announcement 247

Plate 6.15 Sheikh Salah Al Jowder giving a speech at the Majlis of one of the female candidates 254

Plate 6.16 One of the Public Centers in the University of Bahrain 259

Plate 6.17 Queues of Voters Checking their Information 259

Plate 6.18 A Voter Checks his Information in the DER Office 260

Plate 6.19 Coloured boxes used for Voting for Municipal and Parliamentary Elections 260

Plate 6.20 Candidates Watching the Process of Counting the Votes 261

Plate 6.21 Message from a Female Candidate who Contested in the Second Round 268

Plate 6.22 A Female Candidate Participated in Saudi National Day 270

Plate 6.23 A Female Candidate Participated in a Social Occasion 271

Plate 6.24 A Caricature of Muharraqi in Akhbar Al Khaleej 273

Plate 6.25 A Caricature by Hamad Almehezea 274

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AMA American Marketing Association

CEO Chief Executive Officer

CIO Central Informatics Organization

DER Directorate of Election and Referendum

GCC Gulf Countries Cooperation

GT Grounded Theory

IPU International Parliament Union

KoB Kingdom of Bahrain

KWIC Key Word-In-Context

MOP Market-Oriented Party

PBUH Peace Be Upon Him

PEPs Political Empowerment Programs

PMM Political Marketing Management

PMO Political Marketing Orientation

POP Product-Oriented Party

PR Public Relations

RT Relationship Theory

SCW Supreme Council for Women

SET Social Exchange Theory

SOP Sales-Oriented Party

SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

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PEMASARAN POLITIK DAN CALON WANITA DALAM PILIHAN RAYA

PARLIMEN 2014 DI BAHRAIN

ABSTRAK

Perlembagaan Bahrain 2002 menjamin hak-hak mengundi bagi lelaki dan wanita. Oleh itu, tesis sains politik ini memberi fokus kepada strategi-strategi dan taktik-taktik pemasaran politik yang digunakan oleh calon-calon wanita untuk memenangi pilihan raya parlimen pada tahun 2014 di Bahrain. Objektif utama kajian ini adalah untuk menyiasat kesedaran dan kelakuan tentang pemasaran politik dalam kalangan calon-calon tersebut yang berasaskan budaya ‘Arab-Muslim’, dan memeriksa pendekatan yang dijalankan seterusnya mencirikan orientasi pemasaran politik berdasarkan prestasi mereka. Kajian kualitatif ini menggunakan Grounded

Theory untuk menjana satu teori berasaskan data yang dikutip. Data dikumpul berasaskan dua sumber iaitu temubual terperinci separa berstruktur dan dokumen.

Sepuluh daripada 22 calon wanita (45.45% daripada jumlah calon) telah dipilih sebagai informan dengan pelbagai bentuk kelayakan dan pengalaman berasaskan kaedah purposive sampling – tiga informan menang kerusi parlimen, tiga layak ke pusingan kedua dan empat kalah dalam pilihan raya tersebut. Hal ini juga menunjukkan kepelbagaian ciri-ciri demografi dan budaya informan berdasarkan kepelbagaian budaya keseluruhan daerah. Kaedah triangulation digunakan untuk tujuan kesahan dapatan. Pendekatan SWOT iaitu Strength (Kekuatan), Weaknesses

(Kelemahan), Opportunities (Peluang) dan Threats (Ancaman) dingunakan untuk menilai strategi-strategi yang digunakan oleh informan kajian. Dapatan penyelidikan menunjukkan bahawa kelakuan calon adalah dikawal dan dipengaruhi oleh budaya

“Arab-Muslim’ itu sendiri terutama ciri-ciri kelelakian, tribalisme, stereotaip dan

xviii pengelakan ketidakpastian. Para informan adalah berorientasikan hubungan dan bergantung kuat kepada hubungan dengan para pemegang kepentingan untuk mengelakkan faktor-faktor budaya tersebut dan menggunakan strategi ‘bersekutu’ dengan kepala keluarga dalam menjalankan aktiviti kempen melalui media tradisional dan moden. Satu kekangan penyelidikan ialah orang ramai mengelakkan daripada membincangkan hal-hal sektarian yang sensitif yang sememangnya diharamkan secara rasmi. Memandangkan pendekatan pemasaran politik dalam konteks kajian ini mengambil kira tempoh pasca pilihan raya 2010 sehingga pilihan raya 2014, kitaran sebenar tempoh pilihan raya ini tidak jelas. Aktiviti kempen calon- calon secara umumnya bermula beberapa minggu sebelum pilihan raya dijalankan dan tamat sejurus keputusan pilihan raya diumumkan. Isu-isu berkaitan persepsi pengundi atau pemegang kepentingan dan perbandingan antara pilihan raya sebelum atau selepasnya adalah antara tajuk-tajuk yang boleh menjadi asas kajian-kajian akan datang yang berkaitan dengan kajian ini.

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POLITICAL MARKETING AND WOMEN CANDIDATES IN THE 2014

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION IN THE KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

ABSTRACT

The 2002 Constitution of Bahrain guarantees electoral rights for men and women. Thus, this political science thesis focuses on the political marketing strategies and tactics used by female candidates to win the 2014 parliamentary election in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The main aims of this study are to investigate political marketing awareness and the behavior of the candidates in the light of Arab-

Muslim culture, reflecting on the frameworks adopted, and the electoral orientations characterized by the performance of the female candidates. This qualitative study uses Grounded Theory to develop a theory based on collected data. Data was collected from two sources: in-depth semi-structured interviews and documents. Ten out of 22 female candidates (i.e. 45.45% of the total nominees) were selected as informants with diversity of qualification and experience from each of the four

Governorates based on purposive sampling method – three informants won parliamentary seats, three qualified to the second round and four lost the 2014

Parliamentary Elections. This also reflected the informants’ diverse demography and cultures considering the cultural diversity across the Governorates. To maintain validity, the findings were triangulated. To evaluate the informants’ strategies, the study utilizes Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunity and Threats strategy (SWOT). The research findings show that the candidates’ behavior was controlled and influenced by Arab-Muslim culture, notably masculinity, tribalism, stereotype and uncertain avoidance. Informants were relationship-oriented, deeply reliant on relationships with stakeholders to circumvent the cultural factors and used strategies of alliance

xx with heads of families to conduct their election campaigns through traditional and modern media. One limitation of the study includes the avoidance of discussing sensitive sectarian issues by most people which was officially banned. Since political marketing approach covers the time frame of post 2010 election to 2014 election in this research context, the illustration of the election cycle was unclear. The candidates’ campaign activities generally began only a few weeks before the election and ended immediately after announcement of election results. More related studies would be needed to include the perceptions of voters or stakeholders to compare the findings with previous or subsequent elections.

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Each country is distinguished from other countries by its own history, culture, and experience. Therefore, it is hard to understand and evaluate the principles of political mobilisation and its impact on the society and economy unless the culture and experience of the society are considered.

Population is a determinant of political mobilisation and community group roles in any nation’s dynamics. Meanwhile, the population of women comprises almost half of the society in most countries. Thus, ignoring women to participate in a country’s development incapacitates a large segment of the society. Generally, women face barriers of upward mobility, including higher managerial positions in the West, particularly positions that are dominated by males or where a high percentage of subordinates are male (Eagly et al, 1995).

In the Kingdom of Bahrain (KoB), women represent more than 49% of the population. Statistics also show that the total number of residents in the country in

2013 was 1,253,191 (Central Informatics Organisation, 2013). This population includes 614,830 Bahraini citizens, out of which 301,885 are women. Women in the

Kingdom are also a major contributor to its development. Official statistics for 2013 showed that 31.84% of the workforces in Bahrain were women (Central Informatics

Organisation, 2013). These included well-educated women with a long education history dating back to 1928 (Bahrain News Agency, 2011). Bahraini women are also highly skilled and competent to hold higher positions. Hence, they are appointed in decision-making positions such as ministers, deans of colleges and schools, ambassadors, and members of consultative councils. In addition, women 1

entrepreneurs run their own businesses of many types including law firms, hospitality industry, events management, imports and exports, advertising agencies, jewelleries, education and health services.

A glance at some statistics, which explored the causes for keeping women under a ‘glass ceiling’ proved that the problem of hindering women from being elected into legislative positions is not limited to the KoB or other Arab countries.

According to a 2014 annual report issued by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the percentage of women representation across the world in parliaments was 11.3% in 1997. However, their representation increased to 21.9% in 2014 (Table 1.1).

Nonetheless, this representation is still low and does not mirror their real representation in society (IPU, 2014).

Table 1.1: Women Representations in the World Parliaments, 1997-2014 Year Percent Year Percent 1997 11.3 2006 16.8 1998 12.7 2007 17.7 1999 13.1 2008 18.3 2000 13.8 2009 18.8 2001 14.0 2010 19.0 2002 15.0 2011 19.5 2003 15.1 2012 20.4 2004 15.7 2013 21.4 2005 16.2 2014 21.9

Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2014

Furthermore, women in the Arab world have been struggling for decades to prove their worth in the workplace (Ameen, 2001), including in the legislature. The

2014 IPU statistics also showed that Arab women representation is still the lowest when compared to other countries as depicted in Table 1.2 below.

Table 1.2: Arab Women Representations in Arab Countries Parliaments, 1997-2014 Year Percent Year Percent 1997 3.4 2006 8.6 1998 3.3 2007 9 1999 3.4 2008 9.1 2000 3.6 2009 9.5 2001 4.3 2010 11.7 2002 5.7 2011 10.7 2003 6.2 2012 15.3 2004 6.5 2013 15.9 2005 6.8 2014 15.3

Source: IPU, 2014

In the Gulf Countries Cooperation (GCC), which was founded in 1981

(Aljazeera.net, 2007) and consists of six Arab countries; KoB, Saudi Arabia, United

Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar; women representations in legislative bodies were not better than in other Arab countries. A quick review of women representations in the GCC Parliament Councils shows that women representations in parliaments across the GCC are still low (Table 1.3).

Table 1.3: Women Representation in both Houses in the GCC 2011 Country Lower House Upper House No. of Seats % Women No. of Seats % Women Saudi Arabia 151 19.9% 00 00 UAE 40 17.5% 00 00 Bahrain 40 10% 40 27.5% Kuwait 50 3.1% 00 00 Oman 84 1.2% 83 18.1% Qatar 35 0% 00 00

Source: International Parliament Union, 2011

Table 1.3 above shows that women were appointed to executive positions and to the Upper House (Majlis Ashura). They represent 27% of the members, whereas in

the Lower House (Majlis Annwab), women have only 10% representation. Bahrain was the first country within the GCC to bequeath political rights of voting and contesting elections to women. The 2002 Constitution of Bahrain guaranteed full rights for women to practice their political rights by voting and contesting for elective offices.

In fact, women participation in decision making in Bahrain is not new. They have been in the political scene for a long time. Documents show that in 1928, women participated in decision making after they selected their representatives for the Municipal elections (Plate 1.1).

Plate 1.1: Women’s’ participation in Bahrain municipal election in 1928 Source: Al Wasat, June 7, 2015, No. 4656

Nevertheless, due to the advent and development of technology, globalisation and changing socio-economic life styles at the beginning of the third millennium,

Bahrain changed its political structure to suit contemporary aspirations of its people.

In 2002, Bahrain formed its constitution and organised the parliamentary election, which allowed people to participate in decision making. The Constitution guaranteed political rights of voting and contesting for elections.

1.1.1 Political Structure in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Bahrain became a Constitutional Kingdom in 2002 (Article 1) to establish a new era of democracy. In the same year, the Constitution of Bahrain was enacted. According to the Bahrain Constitution of 2002, the constitutional authority in Bahrain was sub- divided into three councils; the Council of Ministries (Majlis Al Wuzaraa), the

Legislative Council (Al Majlis Al Watani) and the Judicial Council (Al Majlis Al

Qadai).

1.1.2 Political Societies

The 2002 Constitution of the KoB allowed the establishment of political societies.

According to the Constitution, the term “Political Societies” in the Kingdom of

Bahrain means political parties which represent various ideologies from Communist to Islamist parties in the parliament. The term “Political Society” became the official term for political parties after a long discussion between the government and political parties. It was eventually agreed that the term “Political Society” (Jameiah Siyasi) be used instead of Political Parties (Hizeb Seyasy). Therefore, political parties in

Bahrain are known as political societies or political blocs.

The three most powerful, ideologically and well-organised political societies who dominate the elections in Bahrain are; Al Asalah Islamic Society, Al Menbar

Islamic Society and Al Wefaq Islamic Society. Al Asalah Islamic Society is Sunni

Salafi. The society has many followers in the KoB and the GCC. Al Menbar Islamic

Society is also a Sunni sect and a branch of ‘Muslim Brotherhood’, which has chapters across many Muslim countries and worldwide. Al Wefaq Islamic Society is

Shi’a who believes in the theory of Velayet il-faqih of Imam Khomeini. However, there were many qualified women members of the political societies, but they were not nominated to represent the societies in the elections. Although the three political societies are the main competitors during elections, there are other leftist and democratic societies which have fewer followers and therefore, do not have substantial influence during the country’s elections.

1.1.3 Parliamentary Elections

The people of Bahrain have practiced their political rights to vote and contest for elections since 2002. Women voted and stood for parliamentary elections in 2002,

2006, 2010 and 2014. The participation of women candidates in the elections showed that they were aware about their roles in law-making in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Women candidates in these four elections utilised some political marketing techniques in their electoral campaigns. These are discussed in detail in Chapter 2.

Table 1.4: Women representations in (Majlis Annwab) in Bahrain, 2002 Date of Parliamentary Elections Female Candidates No. of seats % 2002 1 2.5% 2006 1 2.5% 2010 1 2.5% Supplementary election 2011 3 10.0%

Source: Directorate of Election and Referendum, 2014

Table 1.4 above showed that in the first three parliamentary elections, only one female candidate got elected. In the supplementary election of 2011, three female candidates won their seats to increase female representation from 2.5% to

10% in Parliament. In 2014, the presence of women in the parliamentary election

increased. A total of 22 women candidates contested for the 2014 Parliamentary

Election, but only three were successful.

During the 2014 Parliamentary Election in the Kingdom of Bahrain, there was massive mobilisation for women to participate and contest the election due to several reasons. First, women candidates received more support from the Supreme

Council for Women (SCW), which organised many workshops to train women on organising election campaigns and to develop their entrepreneurial skills. Second, people were not satisfied about the political societies’ performance in the 2010 legislative activities. A survey conducted in 2014 by Al Watan newspaper (October

4, 2014, No. 3220, p. 21) showed that 57.7% of the voters of the Asemah

Governorate and 61% of Shamalyeh Governorate (Al Watan, October 5, 2014, No.

3221, p. 9) said they will not vote for any political society during the 2014 parliamentary elections. The voters’ refusal to vote for any of the political societies was due to their weak performances in parliament.

During the 2014 Parliamentary Elections, Governorates were reduced to four instead of five, for organisational purposes, namely: Capital Governorate (Asemah),

Muharraq Governorate, Northern Governorate (Shamalyeh), and Southern

Governorate (Janubeyah). The Central Governorate (Wusta) was cancelled and its constituencies were merged with the Janubeyah Governorate. Each of the four governorates was divided into constituents based on size and population (Al Wasat,

2014). For the organisational process, blocks within some constituencies were merged with other constituencies (Table 1.5).

Table 1.5: Governorates and Constituencies in Bahrain, 2014 Governorates Capital Muharraq Northern Southern (Asemah) (Al Shamalyeh) (Al Janubeyah) Constituencies 10 8 12 10

Source: Al Wasat Newspaper, 2014 7

Women candidates stood for elections in all the parliamentary elections from

2002 to 2014. They used political marketing in their electoral campaigns. However, they could not win any seat in Majlis Annwab, even though they won additional seats in the 2014 Parliamentary Election than in previous elections. Their representation increased in 2014 but fell short of their ambitions and they experienced several challenges, despite deploying diverse strategies, tactics and techniques.

1.2 Political Marketing

Political marketing became one of the focuses of academics and politicians in the last few decades. Kavanagh (1995, 1996) and Scammell (1999) argued that political marketing is a set of strategies and tools utilised to study the public opinion before, during and after the election campaign to develop political communication and to assess its impact on various audiences. Lees-Marshment (2001, p. 21) suggested a three-approach model based on the behaviour of political parties (product-oriented party (POP), sales-oriented party (SOP) and market-oriented party (MOP). The three approaches of POP, SOP and MOP of political marketing have been in many countries to find out the extent to which commercial marketing strategy, techniques and approaches are implemented in politics. Each political party in a country has its orientation according to the culture, political structure and the election process. For example, a study by Maier et al. (2010) in Germany revealed that German parties are more likely to be sales-oriented than market-oriented. Similarly, Stromback (2010) noted that most Swedish parties should be characterised as sales-oriented rather than as product or market-oriented. Also, Lees-Marshment (2010) in her study of political marketing in New Zealand found that the major parties moved back and forth between sales and market orientations from one to the next.

In sum, political parties in countries differ in implementing political marketing. The differences have emerged in terms of product, sales or market- orientation. Thus, this study investigates female candidates’ strategies during the

2014 Parliamentary Election in Bahrain. The study investigates the awareness of women candidates about political marketing and the extent to which women candidates can be characterised in the shade of the Arab-Muslim culture. The case of women in election in Bahrain was chosen to provide empirical evidence that can be instrumental in developing an affective model to help women attain political upliftment in parliaments within the GCC and other Arab countries who share a similar culture.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

Women stood for the 2014 Parliamentary Elections in the Kingdom of Bahrain, but only a few won parliamentary seats. Many studies revealed that political parties or candidates implement political marketing (Lilleker & Less-Marshment, 2005;

Knuckey & Less-Marshment, 2005; Maier et al., 2010; Stromback, 2010; Less-

Marshment, 2010; Hughes & Dann, 2010; Knuckey, 2010; Less-Marshment &

Pettitt, 2010; Kotzaivazoglou & Zotos, 2010; Kiss & Mihalyffy, 2010; Matuskova, et al., 2010; Fell & Cheng, 2010; Mensah, 2010; Galindo, 2010; Hutcheson, 2010;

Asano & Wakefield, 2010; Mortimore & Gill, 2010).

Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Bahrain is characteristically an Arab-Muslim country with a collectivist tribal culture. This strongly influenced the political marketing strategies that can be employed by female candidates during elections.

Therefore, this study explores and explains the political marketing strategies of female candidates in a conservative cultural environment by exploring and

explaining their practices. This fills the gap in knowledge on political marketing strategies that are employed by female candidates in the GCC and Arab countries during elections using the 2014 Parliamentary Election in Bahrain. This reflects the form of political marketing implemented by Muslim women candidates. It also provides knowledge about women candidates’ awareness and implementation of political marketing. This can become an appropriate model for women in the region and similar contexts on how to win elections.

In order to provide more understanding about the female candidates in election in one of Arab-Muslim countries, the study needs to investigate the behaviour of the female candidates in the 2014 Parliamentary Election in the KoB.

1.4 Research Questions

The research questions for the study are:

1. What is the extent of female candidates’ awareness of political marketing in the

KoB?

2. What were the political marketing techniques and strategies utilised in 2014 by

female candidates in the 2014 Parliamentary Election of the KoB?

3. What political marketing orientations characterised the female candidates’

campaigns in the KoB?

1.5 Objectives of the Study

This study analyses marketing techniques in politics by investigating political marketing in an Arab-Muslim country to address a gap in knowledge. It chooses women candidates’ campaigns in the 2014 Parliamentary Election in the KoB to provide a suitable model for winning parliamentary elections. Specifically, the study:

1. Explores female candidates’ awareness about political marketing in the KoB;

2. Investigates the techniques and strategies utilised by women candidates in

parliamentary elections in Bahrain;

3. Evaluates the effectiveness of political marketing on women candidates’

campaigns and proposes a political marketing model for women candidates for

parliamentary election campaigns.

1.6 Methodology

This study investigates the practices and strategies of female candidates during the

2014 Parliamentary Election in the KoB. To answer the research questions, the researcher considered that parliamentary election is a new event in the country and investigates the political marketing practices in the Kingdom. The qualitative approach was used to explore in depth, the behaviour of female candidates during parliamentary election. The Grounded Theory was used to construct a theory.

Twenty-two female candidates stood for the 2014 Parliamentary Election in the KoB.

Ten out of the 24 female candidates were selected as sample for this study. To cover the scene holistically and see the phenomena from different angles, triangulation was applied. Data were gathered from two main sources; interviews with the informants and documents (social media, newspapers, magazines, slogans, posters).

Triangulating the data increased validity and reliability of the research to produce a high-quality outcome. Data were analysed using two techniques; constant comparison and keyword-in-context (KWIC). The methodological approach is discussed in detail in Chapter 4.

1.7 Theoretical Framework

The study investigates the female practices in the parliamentary election in the KoB in 2014 to provide more understanding about the behaviour of the female candidates in the one of the human activities. Hence, the study needs to provide theoretical framework as guidance to conduct the research (Figure1.1).

Literature Review  Statement of the problem Methodology  Research questions  Arab culture  Women, Islam and  Grounded Theory  Research Objectives Politics  Data collection  Political marketing  Data analysis  Political marketing as a social exchange

Conclusion Findings Discussion

Figure 1.1: Theoretical Framework of the study.

As illustrated in Figure 1.1, the statement of the problem of the study is to provide more understanding about the behaviour of female candidates in one of

Arab-Muslim countries. The research questions for the study are: 1) what is the extent of female candidates’ awareness of political marketing in the KoB? 2) what were the political marketing techniques and strategies utilised in 2014 by female candidates in the 2014 Parliamentary Election of the KoB? and 3) what political marketing orientations characterised the female candidates’ campaigns in the KoB?.

The objectives of the study are 1) to explore female candidates’ awareness about political marketing in the KoB, 2) to investigate the techniques and strategies utilised by women candidates in parliamentary elections in the KoB and3) to evaluate the

effectiveness of political marketing on women candidates’ campaigns and proposes a political marketing model for women candidates for parliamentary election campaigns.

However, political marketing is a managerial process where if candidates need to plan, implement and control their campaigns, political marketing is implemented in social context. Hence, the social exchange in the political marketing is the theory that the study focuses. The other theories of political marketing are discussed in the literature to understand the process of political marketing.

To conduct this social study, this qualitative study uses Grounded Theory is implemented to study in-depth the phenomena of political marketing of female candidates in one of Arab-Muslim country. Arab-Muslim culture influences the practice of the female candidates in election, Hence, it develop the social exchange theory in political marketing in term of using political marketing strategies that were influenced by culture.

1.8 Operational Definitions

Before proceeding, it is important to define some of the concepts and terms in the study. Each of these terms has multiple meanings and interpretations, hence defining these terms determine how these concepts will be used in this study.

The need for operational definitions of terms is to reduce conceptual construction, so they can be observed. In the literature review, the terms will be theoretically defined. To measure the terms, they need to be put in observable elements. Thus, this research measures the following concepts:

Political Marketing includes tools, techniques, and strategies that enable candidates to achieve their goals.

Political Marketing Strategy: This includes the tactics, movements, plans that the candidates implement to achieve their goals, considering the political environment, stakeholders, culture and internal strategy of the candidate.

Political Communication: This is the process of using tools, techniques, and channels to exchange information between candidates and voters, expanding political brand, political product and maintaining good reputation by the candidates.

Parliamentary Election is the process of selecting the members of the

Parliament to represent the citizens in the Deputy Chamber (Majlis Annwab).

Legislative Authority (Al Majlis Al Watani) is the combination of

Consultative (Majlis Ashshura) and Deputies’ Council (Majlis Annwab) that represents the citizens.

Deputy Councils (Majlis Annwab): A chamber consisting 40 elected members in general poll to represent citizens in the legislature.

Consultative Council (Majlis Ashshura): A chamber consisting 40 appointed members that represent citizens in the legislature.

Political Marketplace is where all the groups that are interested in elections processes converge.

Political Branding is the concept of the overall candidate’s image that the people feel.

Political Product is a programme or ideology that a candidate sells to voters in a targeted constituency.

Political Market Segmentation is the process of dividing the market into separate groups of voters who share same characteristics, needs, wants and interests who require separated campaign programmes.

Political Market Targeting is the process of selecting a market or more to become a desired segmented market that is aimed at the candidate.

Political Product Positioning is the process for the political product to be set in the mind of voters in the targeted political market.

Stereotype threat is a situational threat that is influenced by an individual’s social identities and previous exposure to stereotypes concerning a variety of context

(Steele e, al., 2002).

Swing/floating/hesitant voters are electorates who are not committed to a candidate.

Political vote share is the number of votes a candidate gained in parliamentary election.

Culture: For this study, four dimensions of culture will be subjected to an investigation; tribalism, collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and Welayat Al Maraa’.

Tribe (qabila) is a group of people who come from the same great- grandfather. The members are descended from common ancestors and ruled by a hereditary ‘chief’, who share a single culture (including, language and religion) and who live in a well-defined geographic region (Appiah, 1999).

Tribalism (qabaliyah) is the attitudes and practices of harboring such a strong feeling of loyalty or bonds to one’s tribe that one excludes or even demonises those

‘others’ who do not belong to that group (Northwehr, 2008, p. 5).

Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh are tents, which are used as distribution platforms, communication channels and to position political products by candidates in the GCC.

1.9 Significance of the Study

Political marketing has increasingly been discussed by academics and implemented by politicians. Several studies on political marketing have been conducted in many countries all over the world. Most of them have revealed that political parties were characterised as product-, sales- or /and market-orientated. Arab countries are new in practicing democracy. Hence, this study is unlike previous ones, which may have studied the practice of democracies in countries where democracy was practiced for decades and centuries. This differentiates its contribution to the body of knowledge in terms of the theory of political marketing in such an environment. This study also contributes methodologically by using Grounded Theory in collecting and analysing data. Grounded theory enables the researcher to build a theory from the data. The study collects data from two different sources; interviews and documents. To increase validity and trustworthiness, it utilises data triangulation. Moreover, increasing validity and reliability in social studies is a very important measurement to produce high-quality research that reflects reality of the scene.

This study empirically investigates female candidates in the 2014 Bahrain

Parliamentary Election. The study investigates the female candidates’ strategies in parliamentary elections and makes recommendations. The study provides more understanding of human behaviour. It provides practical recommendations and frameworks that could be useful to practitioners in the field of political marketing in general and specifically to female candidates. Importantly, the study ascertains that gaining more voters is insufficient. What is required is change in strategies to compete in elections more effectively and efficiently. Additionally, since the study is interested in political marketing, theoretically, it addresses gaps in the body of

knowledge on political marketing. It provides explanation on the behaviour of female candidates in the election within the Arab-Muslim culture.

1.10 Scope of the Study

This study examines the strategies used by women candidates in their campaigns during the 2014 Parliamentary Elections in the KoB. This means that members of

Consultative Council Upper House (Majlis Ashshura) were not part of the study since they are appointed and not elected.

The study focuses on women candidates in the elections, including those who won and lost the elections and uncovers the strategies used by female candidates.

This enables the researcher to focus on the typical and optimal strategies that should be implemented to win elections as well as those that are counter-productive. The data was collected in the period between May to July 2015.

Likewise, since the study investigates female candidates’ campaigns during the 2014 Parliamentary Election in the KoB, it is not interested in the other political societies. It deals with and investigates the other parties only where they directly influence the female candidates’ campaigns but does not investigate their behaviour in-depth.

1.11 Limitations of the Study

The focus of this study is on political marketing and more specifically on the 2014

Parliamentary Election in Bahrain among female candidates. Data were collected between September and December 2014. This did not allow the researcher to start earlier and may have neglected earlier trends in the electoral process. Data was also collected from two sources; interviews and documents. There was also fear from

some of the informants that personal data will be disseminated and this obstructed the researcher’s communication process with informants.

Findings from the study do not also cover the entire parliamentary elections since it is restricted to the behaviour of female candidates only. Additionally, the results of the 2014 elections were announced in November 2014. Missing the election results meant some very important data were not analysed. This study used the official results announced by the government to analyse the women candidates’ performance in elections. Despite that, some of the candidates from the opposition accused the government of presenting counterfeit elections results, and that the government issued the list of candidates it supported.

1.12 Organisation of the Thesis

This study is divided into 8 chapters; Chapter 1 highlights the background, the statement of the problem, questions, and objectives of the research. In Chapter 2, the study discusses the geography, history, demography, culture, and the situation of women in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Chapter 3 discusses the legitimacy of women’s ruling in Shariah (Islamic law) and theories of political marketing. In Chapter 4, the research methodology is discussed. Chapters 5 and 6 present the findings. Chapter 7 discusses the findings. Finally, recommendations and suggestions for future research are highlighted in Chapter 8.

CHAPTER 2

THE KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN (KoB)

2.0 Introduction

This study investigates the practices of women candidates in the Kingdom of Bahrain

(KoB) 2014 parliamentary election in the light of Arab-Muslim culture. To understand the situation of the female candidates, geography, history, and demography of Bahrain are discussed. This chapter also discusses the political structure, authorities and democratic issues. Finally, the chapter discusses the 2002,

2006, 2010 and the supplementary elections in 2011.

2.1 Geography of the KoB

Bahrain in Arabic is two seas which refer to the sea and ground water that is spread across Bahrain. The country is an archipelago consisting of 51 natural and 33 artificial islands (Ahmed & Basheer, 2006). Bahrain is in the middle of Arabian Gulf

(Figure 2.1).

Figure 2.1: Location of the Kingdom of Bahrain Source: www.google.com, 2017

The KoB is located between three regional powers; Saudi Arabia, Iran, and

Iraq. This influences the behaviour of its people. The largest four islands are Bahrain

(the main Island), Muharraq, Sitra, and Umm Annasan (Figure 2.2). Manama is the capital of Bahrain which is located at the northern part of the main Island of Bahrain.

Muharraq is an island that is at the north-east of the island of Bahrain. Muharraq was the capital of Bahrain until the third decade of the twentieth century. Muharraq is connected to the main island of Bahrain by a causeway which was built in 1956. By

2001, there were two more causeways – the Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa

Causeway and Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa Causeway, which were established between Muharraq Island and the main Island of Bahrain.

The total surface of Bahrain is 8,269 Km square (Central Informatics

Organisation, 2013). The land area is 770 Km square and 7,499 sea area (Survey &

Land Registration Bureau, Bahrain, 2012). The south of Bahrain is within the State of Qatar. On the west, it is beside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is linked to

Bahrain by the 25 km long King Fahad Causeway.

Figure 2.2: Map of the KoB, 2012 Source: Survey & Land Registration Bureau, Bahrain, 2012

In 2002 the KoB was divided into five Governorates for administrative purposes as follows: Capital Governorate (Asemah), Central Governorate (Al Wusta),

Muharraq Governorate, Northern (Shamalyeh) and Southern Governorate

(Janubeyah) (Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.3: Governorates of the KoB in 2002 KEY: 1 = Al- Asemah Governorates, 2 = Al Wusta Governorate, 3 = Muharraq Governorate, 4 = Al Shamalyeh Governorate, 5 = Al Janubeyah Governorate Source: www.google.com, 2017

The climate conditions of the KoB is characterised by desert. The average temperature during the summer months is between 40 to 48 degrees Celsius. In winter months, the temperature is moderate, between 10 to 20 degrees Celsius

(Central Informatics Organisation, 2013).

The location of KoB gave it an important and strategic position. The country attracted many empires since the 3rd Century BC. Thus, it is important to discuss the history of Bahrain, which influences the life of the people in this small island.

2.2 History of the KoB

The geopolitics of Bahrain influences its culture, history and economy. Bahrain is located at the middle of the Arabian Gulf at the crossroads between great civilisations.

The history of Bahrain dates to the 5000 BC. Through the history, the name

Great Bahrain was used to refer to the location from Kuwait to Oman, including

Qatar, UAE and Al Ehsaa’ the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia where the name

Owal or Awal was called the Island of Bahrain (Ahmad & Basheer, 2009).

Around 5000 years ago, Bahrain was home of the Bronze Age civilisation of

Dilmun, which lasted some two millennia. Since then, Bahrain has been occupied alternately by Babylonians, Sumerians, Greeks, Persians, Portuguese and Turkish

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bahrain, 2015). The location of Bahrain attracted attention of many civilisations through history. Bahrain was in the middle between civilisation of Sumer in Mesopotamia and Magan in Oman down to the land of Sind

(Ahmad & Basheer, 2009, p. 27). Historical sources revealed that the first appearance of Bahrain in the blogosphere was in the third millennium BC (The Land of Immortality). Dilmun was the name of Bahrain in 3000 years BC. Bahrain was renamed in 323 BC as Taylos, when Alexander the Great annexed the Persian

Empire and the Arabian Gulf and vast areas of India to his control (Ahmad &

Basheer, 2009). The island of Bahrain was known as (Awal) or (Owal) until 630 AC.

This is relative to the idol, named Awal/Owal, which was worshipped in Bahrain.

Bahrain was one of the first places that embraced Islam, after Al Munther bin

Sawi the King of Bahrain received a message from the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in 628 AC. People of Bahrain converted to Islam (Ahmad & Basheer, 2009). Al

Khawarij rebellions movement ruled Bahrain between 686-692, Abbasid State (750-

1258), Al Zing Movement (862-883), Al Qaramita Movement (899-1077). Between

1232 and 1553, Bahrain was ruled by Uynid, Salgharid, Banu Amir, Usfurids and

Jubor (Ahmad & Basheer, 2009).

The emergence of the colonial powers in the 17th Century increased the importance of securing the waterways between West and East. Portuguese ships headed to the Arabian Gulf and subjected Bahrain to the Portuguese Crown in 1521

(Ahmad & Basheer, 2009). The Portuguese traveler Tome Pires wrote thus about

Bahrain: “the most important island in the Gulf is Bahrain, it is characterised by the availability of the best types of pearls which are not seen in other areas and is part of the trade of Hurmoz” (Ahmed & Basheer 2009).

Bahrain continued to be the center of the world’s pearl fishers. In a good year, the country exports pearl to the value of some two million pounds (Military

Report, 1933, p.5). Portuguese forces were expelled by Persians from Bahrain in

1602, to start the rule of Safavid Empire in Bahrain through the payment of royalties.

Bahrain was ruled by the Safavid until 1782, when Al Khalifah Family who came from Najid in the Arabian Peninsula started a new era of modern Bahrain (Ahmad &

Basheer, 2009). The rule of Al Khalifah dynasty in Bahrain started with Sheikh

Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifah in 1782 and continued through the present day

(Ahmad & Basheer, 2009).

In the first half of the 19th Century, Bahrain signed treaties with the British

Empire to be protected from Iran and Ottoman Empire, who both made claims for the annexation of Bahrain. In 1821, Bahrain and Great Britain entered the Perpetual

Treaty of Peace and Friendship (Ahmed & Basheer, 2009). Bahrain and Great Britain then entered into a group of treaties and agreements in 1880, 1892, 1898, 1911 and

1914 (Military Report, 1933, p.5). These treaties made Bahrain a British protectorate.

In August 1971, Bahrain declared independence from Britain. Sheikh Isa bin

Salman Al Khalifah the Amir of Bahrain called associations and civic institutions to formulate the first constitution of Bahrain. In the same year Bahrain joined the

United Nations (UN) and the League of Arab States to become a full member state in the two organisations (Ahmed & Basheer, 2009).

Increasing threats in the region such as the Al Khomeini revolution in Iran and the invasion of Afghanistan by Russian troops in 1979, the Iraq-Iran war in 1980 drove six of the Arabian Gulf Countries; Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait,

United Arab Emirates and Oman to found the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in

1981. The six countries of the Arabian Gulf are monarchies and the families of the

GCC are relatives. They share the same culture and political systems. The main objective to establish GCC is to join forces to counter threats in the region.

After the death of former Amir Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifah, his son

Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah became the Amir of Bahrain. To achieve popular participation in the reform project, the Amir formed a committee to prepare the draft of the National Charter in 2000 (Ahmad & Basheer, 2009). The committee consisted of 46 members; six of them were women representing the Bahraini society (Ahmad

& Basheer, 2009). The most important of the committee’s result was establishing two legislative chambers; Deputy Council (Majlis Annwab) and Consultative Council

(Majlis Ashshura). In 2001, Bahraini people voted for the National Charter where

98.4% voted in favour of the Charter (The Official Gazette, 2001). In 2001, Bahrain became a Constitutional Kingdom, and its name became the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Due to the openness witnessed in the Kingdom of Bahrain, the margin of freedom increased, and this was reflected in the number of publications issued and freedom from criticism. The number of daily and weekly newspapers have also

increased from four daily newspapers in 1999; Akhbar Al Khaleej (the Gulf News)

(1976), Gulf Daily News (1978) (in English), Al Ayam (the Days) (1989), and

Bahrain Tribune (1997) (in English), to 14 daily and weekly newspapers in 2012.

This equaled to an addition of 10 newspapers in 11 years; Al Wasat (the Middle)

(2002), Al Methaq (the Charter) (2004) stopped due to financial difficulties. Al

Watan (the Homeland) (2005), Al Waqt (The Time) (2006) and Al Belad (the

Country) (2008) also stopped due to financial difficulties. There were five weekly newspapers; Al Ahad (The Covenant) (2003), Al Naba (The News) (2008), Gulf

Weekly (2002) (in English), Al Tejareyah (The Commercial), and Aswaq (Markets)

(2009) according to the Bahrain Journalists’ Association (2013).

Every event in the region was influenced positively or negatively by the economic, political and social events in the KoB, which is one of the most apprehensive in the world. Those events were also influenced by its neighbours such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq. However, despite the existence of these ideological countries around the KoB, the country enjoyed some form of openness through its history. Its people were not just open-minded; they are tolerant and proud Muslims.

2.3 Demography of the KoB

According to the 2013 Census issued by Central Informatics Organization (2013), the total number of people in Bahrain is 1,253,191. Of this population, 614,830 are

Bahraini citizens (49.04%) and 638,361 are expatriates (50.93%). The population of

Bahraini women are 301,885 (49.10 %) of its citizens.

Majority of the people of the KoB are young. Statistics show that in 2011, children who were less than 15 years old represented 15.4% (girl), and 16.1% (boys) of the country’s population. People who were between 15-64 years old represented

32% of the population. Old people represented 2% of the population of both men and women in the Kingdom (Supreme Council for Women, 2013).

The KoB is differentiated from other countries in the region due to its model of ethnic harmony. Most of its people are Muslims, who total 866,999. This represents 70.21% of the entire country’s population. Non-Muslims are 367,683, representing 29.78% of its population (Central Informatics Organisation, 2010).

Muslims are divided into two big communities; Sunni and Shi’a. There is no precise statistics describing the proportion of the two communities of Sunni and Shi’a.

However, Christian and Jewish populations are the two major non-Muslim communities in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Also, there are other faiths such as

Hinduism and Sikhism who practice their religious rituals freely. People of the KoB are proud of their history and strong economy. Moreover, the country enjoys good infrastructure that allows investors to establish their businesses and strengthen its economy.

Abdy cited in Al-Lamky (2007) described the societies of the GCC as bastions of patriarchy and male chauvinism. Furthermore, it is widely believed that women’s place is primarily at home. If professionally inclined; their participation is expected to be in the areas of education, health and other support or clerical jobs primarily at the lower end of organisational hierarchies. Leadership positions are typically reserved for men (Mostafa, 2003; Haddad & Esposito, 1998; Abdalla, 1996 cited in Al-Lamky, 2007). There are, however, arguments to show that in the last 20 years, women in the GCC were appointed to higher positions. There are many women in the KoB, UAE, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar who were appointed as ministers and deans of schools and universities Moreover, in Saudi Arabia, women were

elected to be members of the Shura Council and the Chamber of Commerce and

Industry.

2.4 Economic and Social Issues

The KoB was known as the land of pearls. People of Bahrain lived on fishing and diving for pearls before the discovery of oil. The sea was the main income for the people of Bahrain. Because Bahrain is an island, people worked in pearling, fishing and commerce. In 1932, oil was discovered in Bahrain (Akhbar Al Khaleej, 2013, p.

17). It became the first country in the Arab States in the Arabian Gulf that discovered oil. After the discovery of oil, people of Bahrain preferred to work in public, private, commerce, industries and financial sectors. There were two main reasons that people left pearling. First, the discovery of pearl farming techniques in Japan deteriorated gains in the pearl industry of Bahrain. Europeans who were the main customers found that they could find cheaper and good quality pearls in Japan, which led to the deterioration of the pearling industry in Bahrain in specific and in the Arabian Gulf

States in general. Second, the discovery of oil provided many jobs in petroleum and insurance companies, banks and government, which attracted people to join these sectors rather than pearling.

Recently, the Bahraini government realised that oil would vanish one day.

Hence, it worked to create an infrastructure of professionals and craftsmen and diversified sources of income in addition to oil. Bahrain’s economy varies from petroleum products, gas, aluminum, and petrochemicals products. Bahrain also depends on ship repair; the customs, trading, tourisms, banking and finance (see

Central Informatics Organisation, 2012). Bahrain nowadays is considered as one of the most advanced countries in Islamic banking after Malaysia.

The socio-economic life of the people of the Kingdom of Bahrain has changed since the discovery of oil. But, the stages of the country’s development and evolution have influenced its social, economic and political life. First, during the

Arab-Israel war in 1973, Arab countries halted oil export to Europe and USA for standing with Israel in the war. This action caused an increase in oil prices. Increase in the prices of oil changed the economic and social life of the people of the KoB and the rest of the countries in the GCC.

Second, the area of Arabian Gulf came into focus of the media during the

Iraq-Iran war in 1980, and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. These two events attracted media channels like the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Cable

News Network (CNN) and other satellite channels to cover the wars and battles.

Besides covering the operations of the wars, these channels introduced some countries’ models of democracy to the people of GCC. Consequently, people of the

GCC followed elections in European countries, human rights meetings and activities, and trials of many dictators and fall of regimes live on TV networks. Governments of the GCC did not ban or limit the usage of internet and satellites, which allowed people to follow democratic practices in other countries. The behaviour of people of the GCC changed after these two wars. People from the KoB interacted with all these events and transferred democratic models that have responded to the government’s beliefs that development and modernisation are needed during these changes in the world.

Consequently, in 2002 the King of the KoB, His Majesty Hamad bin Isa Al

Khalifa called the National Action Charter to reform the 2002 Constitution of

Bahrain. This transformed the political structure in Bahrain and enabled people to

participate in decision-making and resulted in the country’s change of political structure.

The Constitution of the Kingdom of Bahrain allows citizens to select their representatives in Parliament. The role of the government is to motivate voters to practice their political rights of voting and standing for election. The Directorate of

Election and Referendum (DER, 2014) formulated and promoted the slogan “with your vote, you can” (Plate 2.1) extensively to motivate voters to practice their political rights of voting. The Government was neutral to all candidates and government-funded television and radio stations were not used by candidates to advertise for their election campaigns.

Plate 2.1: Government’s slogan in 2014 elections Source: Akhabr Al Khaleej, 01 October 2014, No. 13340, p.1

2.5 Political Structure in the KoB

The 2002 Constitution identified the relationship between the King and the people; it formed the authorities based on separation of powers. In the first article of the 2002

Constitution, Bahrain is an independent Islamic Arabic State whose population is 29

part of the Arab nation and territory is part of the great Arab homeland (Article 1,

Bahrain Constitution, 2002). According to the 2002 Constitution of Bahrain, the country is a constitutional hereditary monarchy. The King is the Head of State

(Article 33, Bahrain Constitution, 2002). Authority in Bahrain is divided into three;

Council of Ministers (Majlis Al Wuzaraa’), the Legislative Council-National

Assembly (Al Majlis Al Watani) and the Judicial Authority (Al Majlis Al Qadai).

The three authorities rest on a separation of the legislative, executive and judicial authorities while maintaining cooperation between them in accordance with the provision of the Constitution in Article 32 (Bahrain Constitution, 2002). By implementing the bicameral legislature, Bahrain accompanied two systems in one legislative authority. The Islamic model which believes in consultation (Ashshurah) and the European model which believes in people’s participation in decision-making processes (Figure 2.4).

THE KING

Majlis Al Wuzaraa Al -Majlis Al-Watani Al Majlis Al Qadai

Majlis Ashorah Majlis Annwab Constitutional Chamber for

Court Dispute Settlement Civil Courts Al-Shareyah

Courts Figure 2.4: Authorities in the Kingdom of Bahrain Source: Constitution of the Kingdom of Bahrain, 2002.

The Council of Ministers (Majlis Al Wuzaraa) consists of the Head of the

Council (The Prime Minister) and Ministers. The Prime Minister appoints his

Ministers in accordance with the Constitution of Bahrain.

The Legislative Council (Al Majlis Al Watani) consists of two Chambers; the

Consultative Council (Majlis Ashshurah) and the Chamber of Deputies (Majlis

Annwab). Majlis Ashshurah is composed of 40 members appointed by Royal Order.

The term of membership of Majlis Ashshurah is four years and members may be reappointed when their term has expired. The 40 members of Majlis Ashshurah are chosen based on their qualifications and experience and represent different sectors of the society at the discretion of His Majesty, the King.

Majlis Annwab comprises 40 members elected by direct, secret general ballot.

The term of membership of Majlis Annwab is four years from the date of its first session. A person whose period of membership has ended may be re-elected.

According to Al Aradi (2013), Judicial Authority (Al Majlis Al Qadai) is divided into two branches; Chamber for Dispute Settlement (Ghurfat Hal Al

Munazaat) and Constitutional Court (Al Mahkamah Al Dusturiyyah). Ghurfat Hal Al

Munazaat was established by Royal Order to resolve financial disputes related to any commercial transaction. The board of Ghurfat Hal Al Munazaat composed of not less than seven members including the chair person. The appointment and duration of their membership are determined by a decree (Article 4(a) (Bahrain Chamber

Dispute Resolution, 2009).

The Constitutional Court consists of two Courts; Religious Courts (Al

Mahakim Al Shareyah) and Civil Courts (Al Mahakim Al Madanyah). Al Mahakim Al

Shareyah has a jurisdiction over the issues related to the personal status of Muslims.

Al Mahakim Al Madanyah deals with all commercial, civic and criminal cases and all

personal cases related to non-Muslims. The Constitutional Court is made up of a

President and six members. The members of the Constitutional Court are appointed by the King (Article 106, Bahrain Constitution, 2002).

2.6 Democracy vs Shura

Becker and Raveloson (2008) explain that the word “democracy” is a term that comes from Greek and it is made up of two words; demos (people) and kratien (to govern or to rule). Becker and Raveloson added that democracy can be literally translated to mean the following “government of the people or government of the majority”.

Democracy in Europe developed through stages from the rule of the churches and feudalism in medieval ages. Societies in late ages agreed to formulas that allowed people to judge for themselves through their representatives in one or two

Chambers. Decision-making, using the community’s formula was based on the rule of most voters on proposed projects.

Democracy is a new approach in Arab-Muslim countries, whose ruling where hitherto based on two principles; allegiance (Al Mubayeh) and consultation (Shura).

In Al Mubayeh people swear allegiance and obedience to the Governor (Wali Al

Amr). In return, the Wali Al Amr provides security and ensures the safety of their properties and practices, especially religion. Thus, Al Mubayeh in Arabic means to exchange or compromise between the two parties – people and ruler (Wali Al Amr).

The system of Al Mubayeh can be seen in the GCC, Jordan, and Morocco.

Al Mubayeh has its roots in Arab culture and Islam. Before the emergence of

Islam, tribes had Mubayeh where the power transfer from a ruler to his lineage and

Mubayeh takes place. Islam confirmed the Mubayeh system. In Surat Annesa’, 59:

“Wa Ateao Allah Wa Arrasool Wa Aoli Al Amr Menkum”, means (O you who believe, obey God and the Prophet and those in authority among you; and if you are at variance over something, refer it to God and the Messenger, if you believe in God and the Last Day. This is good for you and the best of settlement)

(tanzil.net/#trans/en.ahmedali/4:59). This verse emphasises the importance of the obedience of a people to Wali Al Amr after the obedience to Allah and Arrasool (the

Prophet Muhammad PBUH).

The second principle of ruling in Arab-Muslim countries is Shura. In Shura, the ruler (Wali Al Amr) appoints qualified, skilled and experienced members in a council named Shura Council. Wali Al Amr consults members of the Shura Council in all affairs (Ummah) of the nation. Islam supports the power of Wali Al Amr in many verses in the Al Quran Al Kareem. Wali Al Amr consults his Shura council members. In Surat Ashura, 38: “Wa Amruhum Shura Baynahum”, which emphasises that Shura is the system where people participate in decision making. In Surat Al

Imran, 159, it is stated that: “Wa Shaurhum Fe Al Amr”. This commanded the

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to engage in consultations.

In the shadow of modernisation, globalisation, and the flow of information and information and communication technology, the demand of the people of

Bahrain to participate in decision-making increased. People became more aware of their political rights. Internet and satellites provided models of ruling systems including the European system of ruling – democracy.

The KoB fastly reacted to these global changes. Hence, two legislative chambers were established (Majlis Ashshura and Majlis Annwab). The KoB on one part enabled its people to participate in decision-making through the selection of their representatives in Majlis Annwab. On the other hand, the country cannot be

detached from its culture and religion. Hence, the country created an avenue for consultative members in Majlis Ashshura chamber. The Kingdom of Bahrain combines two legislative chambers (Majlis Al Watani). The system of the two chambers of legislature enables its people to elect their representatives (in an

European system) in one room and creates another room for members that are appointed by Wali Al Amr (as Islamic system). The members of these two rooms are gathered in one legislative chamber – Al Majlis Al watani. However, many countries have the bicameral system, such as Canada, Malaysia, Brazil, Austria, Australia and many others. The Kingdom of Bahrain implements a bicameral system of government to maintain a balance between the Islamic system of Shura in a consultative and the democratic system of deputies.

2.7 Political Societies

Constitution of the KoB allows the political parties to participate in the democratic process. The term “political party” was substituted with “political society”. The three most powerful political societies are ideological. These include Al Menbar Islamic

Society, with a Sunni philosophy and a political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood party (Al Ekhwan el Muslimeen), which has its followers all over the world. The second is Al Asalah Islamic Society, with a Sunni Salafist ideology. The third is Al

Wefaq Islamic Society. It has a Shi’a based ideology, which follows the commands of Al Wali Al Feqeh in Iran and Iraq as a religious and political source. The ideology is the product of these societies. The three political societies have their followers who strongly believe in their products as it is associated with their religious beliefs

(Aqeedah)

Hence, the three big political societies used their power to prevent women from winning any constituency during elections in Bahrain during the three previous parliamentary elections in 2002, 2006 and 2010. In the 2014 Parliamentary Elections, the mood of voters shifted to voting for independent and female candidates.

Political societies participated in the Parliamentary election, except four opposition political societies, which hesitated until a few days before the election.

The hesitation among opposition political societies was a tactic to put more pressure on the government. On November 11, 2014, Al Wefaq, one of the opposition political societies announced that they would not stand for the election (Akhabr Al Khaleej,

12.11.2014). The Al Wefaq Islamic Society was one of the political societies which boycotted the election. Its decision not to participate in the election was also accompanied by call to its Shi’a followers to boycott the election by refusing to vote.

2.8 Women in Politics in the KoB

Women represent almost 50% of the population in many countries all over the world.

Unfortunately, women are still underrepresented in many countries’ parliaments.

Meanwhile, women in the KoB contribute to all spheres of society and gained their political rights before other women in the GCC. This put Bahraini women ahead of their Kuwaiti counterparts who still struggle to be elected into parliament despite having practiced the parliamentary system since 1960 (Al Arabiya, 2013).

The first articles of the 2002 Constitution of Bahrain stated that women have political rights of voting and contesting elections. The participation of women has an advantage; women contribute to the development in Bahrain, hence the leadership appoints several women as ministers, deans of schools, ambassadors and representatives of Bahrain in many international conferences. Meanwhile, despite

women’s contribution to the development of Bahrain, they could not persuade people to vote for them as members of parliament.

2.9 Women’s Political Rights in the Constitution of the KoB

The Constitution is the most important legal document in modern societies (Al

Mansori, 2011). The Constitution of the KoB was enacted in 2002. It contained 125 articles in five chapters. Chapter I contains three articles and stipulates that; (a) The

Kingdom of Bahrain is a fully sovereign, independent Islamic Arab State whose population is part of the Arab nation; (b) The regime of the Kingdom of Bahrain is that of a constitutional monarchy, and handed down by the late Sheikh Isa bin

Salman Al Khalifa to his eldest son Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa; (c) The system of government of the Kingdom of Bahrain is democratic, sovereignty being in the hands of the people, the source of all power; (d) Citizens, both men and women, are entitled to participate in public affairs and may enjoy political rights, including the rights to vote and to stand for elections.

Chapter II of the Bahraini Constitution contains provisions on citizens’ responsibilities and duties. Chapter III grants rights and duties. Chapter IV determines the public authorities. Chapter V determines The King’s authorities and duties, the Executive (Ministers’ Council) authorities, and the Legislative Council

(The National Assembly), indicating both chambers, that is, the Consultative Council and Deputies Council. Chapter VI contains the Judicial Authority while Chapter V specifies the Financial Affairs. Finally, Chapter VI specifies general and final provisions.

The Constitution of the KoB guarantees equality between men and women in all areas including political rights. Women and men can vote and stand for elections.

According to the Constitution, “Citizens, both men and women, are entitled to participate in public affairs and may enjoy political rights, including the right to vote and to stand for elections” (Article 1(e) of the 2002 Constitution of the Kingdom of

Bahrain). Women have enjoyed their political rights to vote and stand for elections since the first parliamentary elections in 2002.

The Constitution of Bahrain guarantees equality between men and women, and women contribute to the country’s development in all spheres. Records show that the first girls’ school was established in 1928, less than a decade after the first boys’ school was established in 1919. Statistics also show that by 2010, 57.7% of

Bahraini women have held at least a high school certificate. This represented an increase of 11% compared with the percentage in 2001 (Supreme Council for

Women, 2013).

Education of women empowered and enhanced them in contributing to economic development in Bahrain. Representation of women in the workforce also increased from 4.9% in 1971 to 31.84% in 2013. Women worked in the banking sector since the 1950s (SCW, 2013). Members of the Bahrain Chamber of

Commerce and Industry also included 15% who are women. They account for 37% of all Bahrainis employed by financial institutions (Economic Development Board,

2013). Data showed that Sheikha Hissa bint Khalifah Al Khalifah was the first Chief

Executive Officer of Al Salam Bank in 2012; Miss Fatimah Salman was the first

Municipal member in 2010; Miss Muna Al Kuwari was the first Judge in 2006; Miss

Latifah Al Qoud was the first member of parliament in 2006; and Sheikha Haya bin

Rashid Al Khalifah was the first Muslim Ambassador to the United Nations

(Supreme Council for Women, 2013). Women were also appointed as Ministers such as Lulwah Al Awadhi, Nada Hafad, Fatimah Al Buluchi, Sheikha May Al Khalifah,

Hala Al Ansari and Sameera Rajab. Moreover, women occupied positions such as

Deans of schools, doctors, and teachers. Women are equally appointed as members in the Majlis Ashshura. Women representation was 15% in the Majlis Ashshura in

2004. This increased to 25% in 2008 and to 27.5% in 2010 (Supreme Council for

Women, 2013). Therefore, Bahraini women have proven to be skilled and qualified to hold any position. This has gained them the trust of the Kingdom’s leadership.

However, even though women gained the trust of the Kingdom’s leadership, they were not elected into the Majlis Annwab. Al Otaibi and Thomas (2011) noted that to understand why this resistance exists even from fellow women, one must examine the patriarchal nature of the culture, where women are brought up to accept this constrained way of life. During Bahrain’s 2002 elections, the division in society was clear: Islamic societies/parties such as Asalah, Al Wefaq and Al Menbar had no women contestants, and some were not in favor of voting for a female candidate (Al

Otaibi, 2008). The political societies which participated in that election, that is, Al

Asalah, Al Wefaq and Al Menbar, all ruled out any female candidate from their lists

(Asharaq Al Awsat, 2006).

Al Otaibi and Thomas (2011) cite that an earlier study of Bahrain’s 2002 elections found that 67% of voters did not agree with the idea that women should be politically involved, or that this involvement would change stereotypes of women

(Bahrain Centre for Studies & Research, 2005). The Women Affairs Committee at the Democratic Arab-Islamic Wassat Society identified several reasons hindering women to participate in parliament. They argued that women are not convinced of other women’s ability to run for public office, and that women lacked political awareness. They also argued that the influence of religious leaders and conservative figures diminish any chances of women’s success, while the rigid social traditions

already consider that women lack the capabilities to administer public affairs (Al

Otaibi & Thomas, 2011).

Several factors hinder women’s election into parliamentary seats. However, women accepted the challenge to stand for election during the 2002, 2006, 2010, and

2014 parliamentary elections. In Majlis Al Shurah in 2014, nine women were appointed, which represent 22.5% of the members of Majlis Al Shurah. One of these nine female members was Jewish–Nancy Dina Khadhory, and a Christian female member – Hala Ramzi Quraidah.

Civil societies believe in women abilities and provide all support that empowers and enhances their parliamentary awareness, tools that organised their election campaigns and empowers them in politics. One of these institutions was the

Supreme Council of Women (SCW), which supports women to develop their performance.

2.10 Supreme Council for Women (SCW)

The Supreme Council for Women (SCW) was established in 2001 with the main aim of empowering women at all spheres of Bahrain’s society. The SCW is headed by

HRH Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifah, to promote the status of women, promote better awareness of their capabilities, ensure that their rights are protected and help tackle problems in different spheres of society (Economic Development

Board, 2013).

The SCW plays important roles in empowering women in all spheres including political practices. Several workshops and seminars were organised by

SCW to empower and enhance the capacity of women. For example, in October

2013, the SCW organised a course to raise the participants’ awareness of the

importance of rendering social services and developing listening skills as well as knowing the rights and duties of female victims of domestic violence (SCW, 2013).

In October 2013, the SCW conducted another training to support nominees running for membership of the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) (SCW,

2013). In November 2013, the SCW organised many workshops in collaboration with the Bahrain Institute for Political Development in line with Bahraini women’s empowerment efforts such as “Legislations and laws: The election manifesto” and

“The Nominee’s electoral campaign teams” (SCW, 2013).

Al Otaibi and Thomas (2011) note that to encourage women’s’ participation in the subsequent 2006 elections, Tamkeen – a Women’s Empowerment Programme

(WEP) was instituted in 2004 by the Supreme Council for Women in Bahrain. The programme trained women candidates for the parliamentary elections over a period of one year and a half, including courses on parliamentary rules and election regulations.

2.11 Parliamentary Elections in the Kingdom of Bahrain

After almost 25 years from the dissolution of the parliament in 1975 (Al Wasat, 22

October 2010, No. 2968), the people of Bahrain enjoyed their political rights to vote and contest for elections. The people of the KoB participated in decision-making in two legislative chambers; Al Shurah council and Annwab council. As the recent study is interested in women’s participation in parliament, it will subsequently discuss the four parliamentary elections. However, even though women were not allowed to vote or stand for elections in 1973 it is important to cover in brief the history of the parliamentary elections in Bahrain.

2.11.1 Parliamentary Election – 1973

The 2002 Parliamentary Election was not the first election in Bahrain. The first parliamentary election took place in December 1973. At the time, there were 30 elected members in a unicameral legislature – National Assembly (Al Majlis Al-

Watani). According to Mohammed (2005), the most prominent manifestations of the

1973 elections were; first, the legislature was a single chamber. Second, women were not allowed to vote or contest in the elections. Third, people were less aware of democracy and parliamentary processes. Fourth, political parties were prohibited.

Fifth, the elected representatives were all independent candidates. However, in 1975

Sheikh Isa Bin Salman Al Khalifah the former Amir of Bahrain dissolved the

Parliament due to some issues raised by members of parliament. They said the government was interfering with parliamentary processes and power. Between 1975 and 2000 Bahrain lived without a constitution. Institutions of civil society attempted to return the parliament. After the death of the late Amir in 1999, his son, His

Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah’s rein introduced several social, economic and political reforms. One of the reforms called for the drafting of a constitution based on the election of people’s representatives to participate in decision making. In

2002, Bahrain held the first parliamentary elections to start a new era of allowing people to participate in decision making in two legislative chambers. The next section discusses the parliamentary elections to illustrate the women candidates in those elections.

2.11.2 Parliamentary Election – 2002

In February 2002, His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah promulgated the constitution to start a new era of democracy. In the same year, the KoB held the first

parliamentary election. In these elections, women were part of the election process; they voted and were contestants in the elections.

One of the noticeable events was that out of 12 political societies, four boycotted the elections. The political societies that boycotted the election were; Al

Wefaq National Islamic Society and Islamic Work Society (both represent the religious mainstream Shiite), the National Labour Democratic (includes leftists, nationalists, and independents) and the National Democratic Action (NDA) Society, which includes Nationalists and Baathists (Bo Heji, 2002).

As illustrated in Table 2.1, during the 2002 Parliamentary Election, women stood side by side with their male counterparts. A total of 190 candidates contested for the parliamentary election. Eight of the contestants were women. This represented 4.21%. Although Women’s voter participation was 47.7 % as compared to male voter participation of 52.6 %, all women lost (Al Otaibi & Thomas, 2011).

Only one female candidate could reach the parliament – Latifah Al Quod – who gained her seat in Majlis Annwab after the other two male competitors withdrew from the elections before the election was held.

Table 2.1 Candidates and Governorates in 2002 Bahrain Parliamentary election Governorate Female Candidates Male Candidates Total Asemah 3 35 38 Muharraq 1 37 38 Wusta 0 41 41 Shamalyeh 3 43 46 Janubeyah 1 26 27 Total 8 182 190 Source: Directorate of Election and Referendum, 2014

Data shows that women candidates have not contested elections in the Wusta

Governorate. On the other side, Al Wusta has one of the biggest numbers of men candidates. In Muharraq Governorate only one female candidate stood for elections, although Muharraq city is populated by the number of eligible intellectual cadres.

This was not in the 2002 parliamentary elections, but in all parliamentary elections as it is discussed later. The reason for the lack of female candidates in Muharraq

Governorate is due to the domination of Al Asalah and Al Menbar Islamic Societies.

Al Janubeyah Governorate is occupied by tribes who hold to Arab tradition and do not believe in electing women to parliament.

2.11.3 Parliamentary Election – 2006

The second parliamentary elections in Bahrain were held in November 2006. During this election, political societies which boycotted the 2002 parliamentary elections decided to participate. Al Wefaq Islamic Society presented its list which it called the

“Faith-based Bloc list” (Al Qaeimah Al Emanyah) to portray its candidates with an

Islamic image.

The 2006 Parliamentary Elections were the most difficult elections for women candidates compared to other parliamentary elections. Asemah was dominated by three Islamic Societies; Al Aslah, Al Wefaq and Al Menbar; Muharraq by two Islamic Societies; Al Asalah and Al Menbar. Al Shamalyeh is dominated by three Islamic societies. Al Wusta is a mix of many societies, including leftist and

Islamic societies. Al Janubeyah is mostly occupied by tribes who are Islamists and

Arabs.

In 2006, Islamic Societies used mosques and Matams (a place that Shi’a practice their religious rituals on in the Holy month of Moharam) to promote their election programmes. Both Islamic societies Sunni and Shi’a used speeches in mosques and Matam as an advantage to market their candidates. Al Oraed- Al

Shhura Member commented thus, “Islamists blocs use worship places in political marketing” (Al Jaleel, 2010). Mainstream religious sects like the Sunni, and Shi’a,

did not see any harm in transmitting electoral rhetoric on mosque and Matam platforms if it promoted their candidates for the election (Asharaq Al Awsat, 2006).

Gradually, awareness of the importance of women participation in parliament increased. Comparing data in Table 2.1 and Table 2.2, there were more female candidates in 2006 than in 2002. A comparison between 2002 and 2006 elections also show that only eight female candidates (4.21%) participated in 2002 against 182 male counterparts. Whereas in 2006, there were 18 female candidates (8.18%) who contested for the parliamentary elections, against 202 male candidates.

Table 2.2 Candidates and Governorates in 2006 Election Governorate Female Candidates Male Candidates Total Al- Asemah 4 45 49 Muharraq 4 38 42 Al Wusta 4 53 57 Al Shamalyeh 3 47 50 Al Janubeyah 3 20 23 Total 18 203 221 Source: Directorate of Election and Referendum, 2014

Al Otaibi and Thomas (2011) mention that the female candidates in 2006 used printed media and traditional methods to communicate to their voters such as billboards, brochures, word-of-mouth, and personal team canvassing. Mobiles and

Short Message Services (SMS) were used to encourage voters to attend campaign tents (Khaymah), which is a traditional tool used for camping in Arab countries. But candidates in elections in the GCC used Khaymah as a platform to send their messages to the voters.

Similarly, female candidates encountered stereotypical threats. In their case study of the 2006 Parliamentary Election in Bahrain, Al Otaibi and Thomas (2011) note how Gulf Daily News (2006) reported that several women candidates faced an orchestrated campaign of political abuse through text messages telling them to withdraw from the contest. Rumours were initiated via SMS and some offensive

photos were sent via Bluetooth to tarnish one candidate’s image. Political cartoons reflected the images of female candidates which was one of the stereotypical threats.

Abdullah Al Muharraqi, one of the famous cartoonists in Bahrain, drew a caricature in Plate 2.2 below showing a banner of a female candidate between two banners of two male candidates. The banner of the female candidate attracted the voters to vote for her, saying “vote for Moza” while the candidate was shouting: “Committee! Get me out from here”. Meanwhile, the banners of her male competitors read: “Vote for

Dhergham Al Humam”, and “Vote for Dr Basim Basam” (Akhbar Al Khaleej, 24

October 2006, in Al Otaibi, 2008).

Plate 2.2: Cartoon showing situation of female candidates during the 2006 parliamentary elections Source: Akhbar Al Khaleej, 24 October 2006

In sum, female candidates who stood for the 2006 Parliamentary Election outnumbered those who stood for elections during the 2002 Parliamentary Election.

Political societies such as Al Asalah and Al Menbar were aggressive and used some tactics at some stages of elections. The Islamic societies used strategies to attack their rivals, including female candidates.

2.11.4 Parliamentary Election – 2010

In the 2010 Parliamentary Election, Al Wefaq decided to stand for elections. This decision expanded the Islamic societies to become three big ideological societies.

Hence, the first notable observation in the 2010 parliamentary elections was that most of the governorates were dominated by Islamist political societies.

All the female candidates who stood for the 2010 Parliamentary Election were independents. All candidates in the election totaled 147, including nine females

(Table 2.3). Female candidates during the 2010 election were fewer than in the 2006 election. The results of the 2010 Parliamentary Election show that Al Wefaq Islamic

Society gained almost half of the Parliamentary seats – 18 seats (45%); Al Asalah

Islamic Society won three seats (7.5%) and Al Menbar Society gained 2 seats (5%) out of 40 seats in parliament. The remaining 17 seats (42.5%) were won by independent candidates (Gulf Daily News, November 2010). Women candidates in the 2010 parliamentary elections were not lucky – only one female candidate –

Latifah Al Quod won a parliamentary seat after the other competitors in her constituency withdrew.

Table 2.3 Candidates and Governorates in 2010 Bahrain Parliamentary Election Governorate Female Candidates Male Candidates Total Al- Asemah 1 22 23 Muharraq 1 35 36 Al Wusta 3 33 36 Al Shamalyeh 2 31 33 Al Janubeyah 2 17 19 Total 9 138 147 Source: Directorate of Election and Referendum, 2014

The 2010 Parliamentary Election was synchronised with events that influenced the political scene in the KoB because it was not isolated from what happened in the Arab region. Only three months after the parliament started its activities, in January 2011, the Arab Spring (Arrabea Al Arabi) negatively influenced

the regimes of some Arab countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, and

Yemen. People in these countries clamoured for regime change because they suffered from the dictatorial rules of their leaders. These countries can be described as authoritarian, dictators. People in these countries protested for more freedom and more participation in decision making.

Arab Spring Arrabea Al Arabi refers to the protests that started in Tunisia on

December 14th 2010 demanding the resignation of president Bin Ali of that country.

Slowly, Arab Spring spreads neighbouring countries over the following weeks and inspired massive turnout in Egypt that caused President Hosni Mubarak to resign on

February 11th 2011 (Zachary, 2017). Arrabea Al Arabi swept many Arab countries;

Yemen, Syria and Libya.

The opposition societies led by Al Wefaq Islamic Society rode the wave of

Arrabea Al Arabi using social media to mobilise people to gather and demand reform. On 14 February 2011, people gathered in response to the calling of the opposition societies. Consequently, the police forces faced and tried to disperse the protesters. His Majesty the King called all the political societies and civil society organisations to an open dialogue.

The call to dialogue by the King was wrongly interpreted by the opposition societies, and events escalated dramatically when one of the opposition leaders –

Hasan Mushaimea announced the establishment of an Islamic Republic in Bahrain like the Iranian regime (Al Arab, Akhbar Al Khaleej, 2012). For most of the people of the KoB, it was clear that what happened was not calling for reform, but it was to overthrow the regime. The event was a sectarian movement by a group to overthrow the regime in the KoB. The events were covered with the concept of reform and were chaotic. This led to a negative impact on the economic and socio-political life of the

KoB and the GCC in general. Due to the evolution of events, a coalition of Al Fateh which was supported by some of the political societies – Al Asalah and Al Menbar issued a statement expressing adherence to and support of the Leadership, the government and the Constitution of Bahrain which was approved by its people at the

National Action Charter in 2002. The opposition raised their demands to put more pressure on the government. Al Wefaq announced the suspension of its membership in Majlis Annwab (Al Wasat, 2011). Al Wefaq ordered its 18 parliamentary members to resign from the legislature (BBC, 2011). The 18 members of Al Wefaq who were members of parliament resigned and left 18 parliamentary seats empty. The threats by Al Wefaq were serious. It also ordered its members and followers not to participate in the election. Hence, one of Al Wefaq members who decided to stand for election announced that he would withdraw and would not stand for the election (Al

Wasat, 19 October 2014).

According to the Constitution of the KoB, supplementary parliamentary elections (Al Entikhabat Al Takmeleyah) was organised and held on 1st October 2011

(Bahrain News Agency, 2011). Al Entikhabat Al Takmeleyah were held in four

Governorates; Asemah, Muharraq, Shamalyeh and Wusta. There were no members from Al Wefaq in Janubeyah Governorate. Therefore, supplementary parliamentary elections did not take place in the southern Governate (Al Janubeyah) because there were no candidates from the Al Wefaq Islamic Society in this governorate. Al

Entikhabat Al Takmeleyah (supplementary parliamentary election) was held in

Janubeyah Governorate. This was a good opportunity for female candidates to gain more seats and eight of them in Al Entikhabat Al Takmeleyah stood against 73 male candidates in Al Entikhabat Al Takmeleyah in 2011. Ebtesam Hijrs, Sawsan Taqawi

and Somayah Al Jowder reserved their seats, to increase women representation in parliament from one (2.5%) to four female candidates (10%) in parliament.

Table 2.4: Candidates and Governorates in the 2011 Supplementary Parliamentary Election Governorate Female Candidates Male Candidates Total Al- Asemah 3 27 30 Muharraq 0 4 4 Al Wusta 2 14 16 Al Shamalyeh 3 28 31 Total 8 73 81 Source: Directorate of Election and Referendum, 2014.

Table 2.4 above illustrates the four Governorates that held the Supplementary

Parliamentary election. Eight female candidates stood against 73 male candidates.

Three out of the eight female candidates could reach the parliament.

2.12 Reflections on the Parliamentary Elections

In the 2006 Parliamentary Election, more female candidates stood for elections than in 2002. Unfortunately, only one female candidate won her legislative seat. The supplementary election in 2011 provided a good opportunity to allow for three female candidates to increase their representation in parliament from 2.5% before the supplementary election to 10% after the supplementary elections in 2011.

Data of the four elections showed that in 2002, women stood in seven

(17.5%) of the 40 constituencies; wherein in 2006, the proportion increased to 16

(40%) constituencies, but then it decreased to 8 (20%) constituencies in 2010, and in

2014 the proportion increased to 17 (42.5%) constituencies

In 2010, Al Wefaq introduced its list supported by the same scholars and urged its members not to nominate or vote for female candidates, except the male candidates on their list. This reduced the number of women who contested in constituencies. 49

2.13 Summary

This chapter discussed the geography, history, economic, social and cultural lives of the KoB, which is monarchical. The political system is divided into three separated powers. The KoB is new to democracy. Its people are new to democracy and had participated in four parliamentary elections; 2002, 2006, 2010, the Supplementary

Parliamentary election and 2014.

Women in the KoB enjoyed their political rights to vote and contest elections since 2002. They contested in the four parliamentary elections. In the 2002, 2006 and

2010 parliamentary elections, no female candidate won a parliamentary seat, except one female candidate who won after her male competitors withdrew before the election started. In the 2014 Parliamentary Election, there were three female candidates whose seats were reserved in parliament after they won in the second round.

CHAPTER 3

LITERATURE REVIEW

3.0 Introduction

This chapter reflected on political marketing theories to discuss relevant literature on political marketing, which are related to the legitimacy of women’s participation in politics as a fundamental aspect of women political participation in Arab-Muslim countries. This chapter discusses the Arab-Muslim culture. It discusses the GCC culture to explore the influence of the GCC culture on the lives of people. Then, it discusses the traditional and modern Muslim scholars view points in the legitimacy of women’s participation in politics. It discusses marketing and political marketing theories in detail.

3.1 Arab Culture

Culture influences the individuals thinking, attitudes and behaviour. In Arab and

Middle Eastern countries in general and in the GCC in specific, religious and cultural factors are influential in shaping human resource practice (Branine & Pollard, 2010;

Budhwar & Mellahi, 2007, Metacalf, 2007). Culture also, has it is influence on the political practice.

The GCC countries share the same culture. Mellahi (2006) argues that Saudi

Arabian culture is highly collectivist. According to Harbi et al., (2017), the management in organisation style for example focuses on the group rather than individuals. The personal lives of individuals in Saudi Arabia are different and uncommon in Western societies. Nepotism is used to rely on family and friends’ relationships to get things done, both for themselves and their organisation. This is acceptable in Saudi Arabia (Al Faleh, 1987, Bjerke & Al-Meer, 1993).

According to Harbi et al. (2017) Saudi Arabian collectivism gives priority to relationships within individuals in the organisation. Robertson, et al. (2002) argues that this can result in hierarchical and unequal relations and large disparities of power. Al-Faleh (1987) argues that democracy is absent from Arab culture and the prominent management style (Branine & Pollard, 2010). Consultation in Islam is one of the ruling principles and according to Tayeb (1997) consultation is a useful technique for avoiding disagreements and for gathering information in the organisation.

According to Harbi et al., (2017), power and authority in Arab society are influential determinants of individuals (manager-employee) relations. Branine and

Pollard (2010) argue that individuals in Arab countries often feel a high moral obligation to support family and relatives. All aspects of public and private existence in Saudi Arabian society are infused by Islam (Harbi et al., 2017). Arab cultural practice gives precedence to tribe, family and kin over the objectives of the organisation (Harbi et al., 2017).

Harbi et al. (2017) argue that Wasta is a collectivism practice in Saudi

Arabia. Wasta is defined as connections, network, contact and nepotism (Hutchings and Weir, 2006). Wasta in Arabic means to go in between. Wasta is used to facilitate business in terms that individuals rely on their relation network. For example, the individual do his or her business faster if she or he has one of his family, tribe, and friends. The name of family, tribe serves individual to get a job, promoted. In his study (Harbi et al., 2017) shows that family relations affect the appraisal process in

Saudi Arabi and that ‘who you are’ is influential in Arab culture. ‘Who you are’ relates to the family, tribe or region from which individual comes (Branine and

Pollard, 2010). .

As a culture changes and evolves, the worldview of the members of that culture will likely face a transformation as well (Robertson et al., 2001, 2012). In the

GCC and for centuries, women were hindered to participate in politics. Actions of

GCC leaders, rules, regulation change the culture in these countries. For example, the

KoB Constitution 2002 allows for women to vote and stand for elections. Also, in

Kuwait, members of parliament voted in 2009 for the project that allows women to vote and stand for election. Moreover, in the last decade, in Saudi Arabia, which was the most conservative toward women participation in politics, King Salman bin

Abdul Aziz Al Saud in his Royal Order, allowed women to drive cars and to stand for municipal elections and in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Decisions were taken by leaders the GCC related to women issues change the people attitudes toward participation of women in politics. It also, encourages women to vote and stand side by side to male candidates.

3.2 Women’s Political Rights in Islam

Religion is one of the sources of culture in Muslim countries. Islam influences the lives of Muslims. It is not just a religion; it is a holistic philosophy and guidance for

Muslims’ daily lives. One of the noted aspects of Islam is that it sets principles of equality and averts discrimination between people based on race, colour or sex. In the Quran, Allah said: O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other. Verily that most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. And

Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (Al Hujrat, verse 13). Based on the above verse of the Qur’an, Islam preceded the advocacy for equal rights among mankind.

In relation to the above, one of the most controversial matters in political rights between the traditional and modern Muslim scholars was Welayat Al Maraa’

(the ruling of women). The concept of Welayat Al Maraa’ will be discussed below to present viewpoints from both early and modern Muslim scholars.

Women throughout the Islamic history were not isolated from the political scene. To the contrary, they have always participated in political decision making.

Moreover, women headed and ruled Muslim nations. Al Quran Al Kareem presents many examples of women who wisely ruled their nations such as The Queen Balqis of Yemen who led the Saba nation. Also, Khadija, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH’s) first wife, before she married him, was a businesswoman running her own business, and after her marriage, she continued in business until her death (Ameen, 2001).

Islamic history also tells about Shahjar al-Durr (tree of the pearl) who played an extremely important role in the Islamic history of Egypt. She ruled Egypt after the death of her husband Sultan Al-Salih Najim al Din Ayyub in 1250 and gave up her throne to her new husband, Al-Muizz Aybak al-Turkoman (Mufeed Al Zaidi, 2009)

(This text is in Arabic; details are attached as Arabic references).

El-Nimr (1997) argued that Islam guarantees the political rights of women.

However, El-Nimr notes that if women gained their rights in the Golden Age of

Islam, they can equally enjoy their rights in modern time. She adds that women must not demand more rights and equality because of their nature; they cannot choose a better life than what Allah has chosen for them.

In retrospect, Muslim scholars have debated the issue of giving women their political rights. The most important question, in this case is to what extent does

Islamic law legitimates women’s participation in political life. Mohammed Ali Al

Mansori (2011) in his book “Women Political Rights in Islamic and International

Laws” discusses early and modern Muslim scholars’ perspectives. The book starts with the definition of political rights. Zaidan (1975, p. 90) defines political rights as what “is acquired by a person because of his candidacy and his position from the positions of the states and the individual’s participation in the management of the state affairs” (This text is in Arabic; details are attached as Arabic references).

According to Al Dorini (1984, p. 193) political rights are those granted to adults by

Islamic Law to acquire the right to vote and run in elections and assume positions. It is thus imperative of citizens to practice their rights to vote and contest elections. So far, the discussion has shown that Islam does not discriminate between the political rights of men and women (This text is in Arabic; details are attached as Arabic references).

Meanwhile, holding an official position is to plan, manage, control and rule.

To rule in Arabic means ‘Al Welayeh’ (Izat, 1995, p. 204) (This text is in Arabic; details are attached as Arabic references). Muslim scholars define Al Welayeh as the authority to rule a person(s’) affair, with or without the acceptance of the ruled

(Haskafi, 1976, p. 55) (This text is in Arabic; details are attached as Arabic references). Al Souti (1987, p. 284) defines Al Welayeh as “authority that is given by law to a qualified and suitable person. This entitles the bearer the power to formulate the contracts and regulations and act absolutely independently” (This text is in

Arabic; details are attached as Arabic references).

Al Mansori (2011) argued that there are two levels of Al Welayeh Al Khasah

(Private Sphere) and Al Welayeh Al Amah (Public Sphere). Al Mansori (2011) notes

Al Welayeh Al Khasah is limited in marriage contracts and guardianship. Welayeh Al

Amah is the authority granted from general elections, allegiance or a special position

granted from the governor or his deputy (This text is in Arabic; details are attached as Arabic references).

Legitimacy of women to hold positions of ruling has been one of the most debated issues among Muslim scholars. Al Mansori (2011) states that there are three points of view about the legitimacy of women to hold the position of ruling a nation

(Welayat Al Ummah), such as Al Khilafa (Presidency), judiciary, consultation, voting and standing for elections. Traditional Muslim scholars argue that women are not qualified to hold the responsibility of general sphere (Welayat Al Ummah).

The second view argues that women are qualified to hold any position except the position of Al Khilafa (Presidency) (Al Boty, 1996). Al Boty noted that women can become involved in all the political activities with the condition that they are committed to Islamic teachings (This text is in Arabic; details are attached as Arabic references).

The third view argues that women are qualified to hold all positions, including Al Khilafa. Al Mansori (2011) argues that Muslim scholars who are opposed to women’s political participation justifies their position with the argument that it is important to take the necessary steps to recommend women in religion, ethics and knowledge in accordance with the teachings of Islam and the female limits of nature. They believe that giving women the right to vote in elections is prohibited in Islamic law. Voting in election will automatically give women the rights to stand for elections as soon as they realise their legal requirements for membership in the parliament. Al Mansori (2011) argues that prohibition of ‘Welayat Al Maraa’ must be based on clear evidence. According to Islamic rules, in principle everything is permissible if there is no conclusive evidence of its prohibition.

Modern scholars believe that Islam encourages the participation of women in political affairs. Al Sebai (1990, p.155) notes that Islam does not prohibit giving women the right to vote for the suitable candidates. It is the selection of the agents in charge in legislation and government control. Voting is the process of electing a person for parliament to represent others and define their rights (This text is in

Arabic; details are attached as Arabic references).

By joining the legislative body, women will be able to solve motherhood and childhood problems. For the sake of such good cases, women needed to use strategies of political marketing to be elected into parliament, and this required female candidates’ empowerment, knowledge and increased awareness of political marketing in election.

Therefore, Islam encourages women to participate in political life. The bottom line of such discussion is to clarify the Muslim scholars’ viewpoints about the legacy of women’s participation in political life. However, prior to detailing political marketing, theories of marketing are discussed, including commercial marketing, which is the mainstream of political marketing.

3.3 Arab-Muslim Culture

This thesis focuses on one concept in Arab-Muslim culture- the participation of women in politics. Islam changed traditions, values and norms of Arabs in the

Arabian Peninsula. The behaviour of Arabs has changed based on Islam teachings such as from worship of idols to the worship of Allah SWT alone, girls’ infanticide

(the girls were buried alive for fear of shame), drinking alcohol and others that were practiced during the era of al-Jahiliyya (pre-Islamic state of ignorance)..

The idea of girls’ infanticide that Arabs practiced in Jahiliyya was refuted by some authors such as Shehadeh & Maaita (n.d). The authors argue that not all the

Arabs practiced girls’ infanticide. Khadija bint Khuwailed, Hind bint Otbah and

Zeinab bint Jahsh and many others remained alive during the Jahiliyya and embrace

Islam. Allah SWT said in Quran “Wa etha Bushir Ahadahum belOntha thal wajhuhu moswadan wa howah khtheem” (Al Nahl; 58) means (yet when news of the birth of a daughter reaches one of them his face is darkened, and he is overwhelmed with silent grief (tanzil.net/#16:58). This verse of Quran emphasizes to negative attitudes of the people towards female in Jahiliyya.

The negative attitudes towards women in some spheres especially the women participation in politics remained after Jahiliyya for some people in terms of keeping women away from politics for example. The influence of Arab-Muslim culture on women participation in politics has long debates among authors. For example, Alvi

(2005) argues that resistance to progressive change does not come from only Mullahs

(religious people) and orthodox religious establishment in Arab countries. Many highly educated intellectuals in the Arab-Islamic world have yielded to their basically suspicious attitudes and mentalities regarding social reforms that appear too

‘Western’ for their taste. Religion and culture influences affect politics in the Arab-

Muslim countries. Alvi (2005) argues that however in Arab world culture women are allowed to vote and be part in politics, it is still a culture in most countries remains infancy since there is no separation of religion and politics in Islam.

Islam encourages women to participate in politics as it was mentioned earlier in this chapter, still there are some of those who feel that women should be away from politics. Change in politics in the last few decades in the GCC give women wider margin to practice their political rights in voting and standing for elections.

The following discusses marketing theories which are the mainstream of political marketing. It also discusses the political marketing to cover all the aspects of the field.

3.4 Definitions of Marketing

Marketing has been defined differently based on various points of views which reflect several theories that explain the marketing phenomena. There is no one standard definition that can be used as an optimal collection of all these theories.

Burnett (2010) argues that marketing is not easy to define. No one has yet been able to formulate a clear, concise definition that finds universal acceptance. The two main reasons leading to this disparity are that marketing shared its functions with some other disciplines such as public relations. Second, marketing has expanded its terms and concepts to some other disciplines such as service marketing and political marketing.

On the other hand, some authors argue that the definition of marketing reflected the function of marketing in organisation. Hult et al. (2011) for example, argue that “the concept of marketing was narrow, and the focus was on organisational activities and customers throughout the twentieth century”. However, marketing as a managerial activity takes place between all parties that are involved in each social context. Thus, discussing the definition of marketing draws a border for the field to sum up the aspects of marketing and excludes the terms and concepts of other fields and clarifies the ambiguity in various concepts of marketing.

In view of the available set of marketing definitions, it is appropriate to clarify the ambiguity in the numerous concepts of marketing to distinguish marketing from other fields. Schools of marketing are discussed to present different viewpoints.

These include marketing as social exchange and relationship theory. The exchange theory presents the basic and main processes of marketing in a social context. The relationship theory illustrates the value(s) that is/are created for the buyer, seller and other stakeholders. Meanwhile, the two schools; social exchange and relationship theory illustrate the interaction between both parts in a social context. Furthermore, sellers seek to retain and attract buyers. Consequently, the sellers from this orientation look for long relationship with their buyers. Economical and managerial definitions are also discussed to illustrate the importance of planning, implementing and controlling the marketing campaigns. The stakeholder theory is also discussed as an important part of the marketing process.

3.4.1 Social Exchange Theory

The basic process of marketing is exchanging things that are of value. When two parties (individuals or groups) exchange valuable things, this process takes place in a social context. The valuable things could be tangible (goods, money) or intangible

(services). The social exchange theory reflects interactions between a buyer and seller in a social context and such interaction can lead to compromise.

Homans (1961, p. 3) argues that social exchange is the exchange of activity, tangible or intangible, and rewarding or costly, between at least two persons.

However, Homans’ exchange definition illustrates primitive bargains. The social exchange activities in Homans’ definition considered a win-loss strategy between the two parties in the exchange. The win-loss strategy explained the rationality of both the buyer and the seller in an exchange.

Similarly, Kotler (1972) defines marketing as the set of human activities directed at facilitating and consummating exchange. Kotler emphasises on marketing 60

as it is one of the human activities that facilitated and finalised exchange. Hunt

(1976) argues that relationship in an exchange is the basic subject matter of marketing. Exchange relationship is the backbone of marketing. Marketers realised that building a long-term relationship with stakeholders is the main key to success and sustaining a market. In political marketing, a market-oriented party design their product based on voters’ needs and wants. The behaviour of market-oriented party aimed to satisfy the needs and wants of voters to build long-term relationships.

In the process of marketing, both buyer and seller try to achieve their objectives. But an exchange is an act of obtaining the desired object from someone by offering something in return (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012) to satisfy each party’s needs and wants. This supports the notion of marketing put forth by Kotler (2003, p.

6). The author explains that marketing is a social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering, and exchanging products and services of value freely with others.

In sum, marketing from socialists’ viewpoint is a process that takes place in a social context. In the process of exchange, an interaction between the buyer and seller takes place. Social exchange in the marketing process could mean one-time sale and marketers are aware that a one-time sale is not the appropriate strategy for marketing. The notion is to retain customers and attract potential customers to increase profit and remain in the market. Hence, a relationship between an organisation and its environment is the way to sustain the organisation.

Society of the Kingdom of Bahrain (KoB) is collectivist. In such a society relationship between individuals and groups are strong. For example, tribes and big families create relations networks. Individuals rely on these networks in doing their business.

Creating relation networks in the KoB in particular and the GCC societies facilitates doing business including selecting the desired candidates. As discussed in chapter three that in Saudi Arabia people practicing Wasta which is sort of social exchange relation networks play role in such a practice. It is clear that culture of

GCC where people rely on their relation network develops the social exchange theory of political marketing.

3.4.2 Relationship Theory

One of the objectives of an organisation is to sustain itself in a market if it can. To survive in a market, organisations build long-term relationships with customers and other stakeholders. Gronroos (1999) notes relationship marketing is a philosophy that guides the planning and management of activities in the relationships between a firm and its customers, distributers and other partners. It is important to build relationships with customers and other stakeholders. Kotler and Armstrong (2012) argue that relationship is the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships to capture value from customers in return.

Although, the customer is the main and final target of the marketers, there are other parties (individuals or groups) who are interested in the marketing process.

These are called stakeholders. Freeman (1984, p. 46) defines a stakeholder as any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organisation’s objectives. Freeman and Reed (1983) argue that the stakeholder can affect the achievement of an organisation’s objectives or who is affected by the achievement of an organisation’s objectives. The stakeholders of the candidates do not vote for him or her, but they can influence the voters indirectly. Bowie (1988) puts the success and failure of the organisation on the awareness of its management

to the importance of the stakeholders, without whose support the organisation would cease to exist. Therefore, it is important that candidates vying for elective offices should identify individuals and groups who are stakeholders in their constituencies and in the electoral process.

However, building relationship with the stakeholders has many advantages.

First, it echoes the mission of the organisation towards stakeholders. Second, it maintains the organisation’s image in society. Third, relationship with stakeholders reflects the ethical issues that an organisation is committed towards. Fourth, stakeholders can play a role of “word-of-mouth” and provide recommendation to the candidate. All these advantages increase organisational profit in the long run.

Further, who are the stakeholders and what is the appropriate strategy to satisfy their needs and wants in the shade of the conflict of their objectives? Hult, et al. (2011) classify stakeholders into two categories; primary stakeholders are a group the firm depends on for its survival and continued success such as employees, managers and customers. The second group of stakeholders are the secondary, such as advocacy groups, mass media, social media, and trade associations. However, the stakeholders of a political party vary depending on the society, but it can be categorised into; voters and their families and friends, government, press, international bodies and environment.

Meanwhile, internally, marketers are aware that marketing cannot be spontaneous. It is a planned, organised and controlled process. Hence, it is fruitful to discuss the definitions of marketing since it is a managerial and functional process.

More so, managerial approach illustrates the behaviour of an organisation.

3.4.3 Marketing as a Managerial Process

Marketing as an organised process allows marketers to minimise failures by designing and putting their strategies in action. Planning, designing, segmenting, targeting, positioning and designing strategies are the main steps in strategic marketing. The following definitions present the managerial perspective of marketing.

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA) (1985), marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organisational objectives (Marketing News, 1985). However, AMA’s definition focused on the exchange theory; it emphasised that marketing is a functional process to achieve its objectives. Hence, AMA offered a new marketing definition in 2007 thus: “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and process for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large” (Marketing News, 2008, p. 28).

The argument is that the activity of marketing is a dynamic process that reacts to every change in the society. Notably AMA’s (2007) definition of marketing emphasises on partners and society at large. In 2009, AMA replaced “partners and society at large” in its previous definition with the word “stakeholders”. Gundlach and Wilkie (2009) note that AMA modified and replaced the definition of marketing to emphasise on stakeholders and the importance of creating relationships between two parts of the exchange process. The marketing definition of AMA now reads: an organisational function and asset of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organisation and its stakeholders.

In support of the previous discussion, strategic marketing aims to ensure that plans are based on market needs. Market research provides information about the customers, the other stakeholders, markets, the size of markets and its needs and wants. Accordingly, marketers design the strategies to target the required market using the 4Ps of marketing (i.e. price, product, promotion, and place) to allow them to compete in a market. Political marketers utilise strategies based on the managerial process. They utilise the elements of segmenting, targeting and positioning their product before, during and after the elections.

In sum, marketing theories and definitions are from the perspectives of; social exchange and relationship theories. This study defines marketing as the dynamic strategies that aim to satisfy the needs and wants of stakeholders to establish relationships that will sustain it in a market. Marketing is a dynamic strategy because marketing activities deal with customers and other stakeholders who influence and are influenced by variables such as political, social and economic changes.

Marketing is a planned and controlled process because it segments, targets and positions its product based on market research. The aim of these activities is to determine the behaviour of organisations towards creating long-term relationships with stakeholders.

3.5 Reviews on Political Marketing

Tremendous studies revealed that political parties use commercial marketing strategies. Hence, the theories of political marketing are based on the commercial marketing. The following account discusses political marketing, and its definitions, theories, frameworks and practices.

Studies reveal that political marketing emerged from commercial marketing using mechanisms and strategies of commercial marketing in politics. Lees-

Marshment (2010, p. 1) notes that political marketing is the “utilisation of commercial marketing techniques and concepts in politics”. Kotler and Kotler (1981) note that the same principles that operate in the commercial marketplace is held true in the political marketplace.

Kotler and Andreasen (1991) argue that many concepts and tools are shared by the marketing of products and political marketing. According to Niffenegger

(1989) and Posner (1992) politicians have become likened to consumer products, complete with marketing strategies and promotion campaigns, which enable them to increase their market share, hence election campaigns are compared to marketing activities.

3.5.1 Definition of Political Marketing

Harrop (1990) explains that political marketing is not just about political advertising, party political broadcasts and electoral speeches. It covers the whole area of party positioning in the electoral market. Thus, many schools emerged to define political marketing. Stephan and Henneberg et al. (2009) argue that Sheth et al. (1988) identify 12 different schools of marketing. Many of them are inspired by the social exchange theory, micro-economic theory, or institutional political economy

(Alderson & Martin 1965; Ardnt, 1983; Hunt 1976).

Ormrod (2012) notes too that the first definition of political marketing was offered by Shama (1976). According to Shama (1976), political marketing is the process by which political candidates and their ideas are directed at voters to satisfy their political needs and thus gain their support for the candidate and ideas in

question. Shama emphasises the importance of mutual relationship. In the electoral process, the candidate satisfies voters’ needs and in return, the voters support the candidate. Satisfying voters’ needs and wants requires candidates to fulfil their promises. The argument is that voters are rational, and they consider losses and gains from a mutual relationship with a party. If a candidate put his/her interests above the voters’, then he/she will lose.

The AMA (2007) defines political marketing as marketing designed to influence target audiences to vote for a particular person, party, or proposition

(Ormrod, 2012). The AMA focuses on the behaviour of political party in persuading voters. Its definition is uni-directional – from political party to voters. This definition ignores voters’ behaviour and the stakeholders who could influence voters’ decisions. Hence, political marketing is a managerial and functional process and its definition should not be restricted to the social exchange approach. Additionally, the above definition does not show that a mutual relationship exists.

In political marketing, the exchange theory explains the relationship between the candidate (seller) and the voter (buyer). O’Cass (1996) argues that the exchange process accomplishes when the voters cast their votes. In return, the candidate or the political party offers a better government and policies after election. Lock and Harris

(1996) define political marketing as the study of the processes of exchanges between political entities and their environment and amongst themselves, with particular references to the positioning of both entities and their communications. Lock and

Harris (1996) consider exchange process in political marketing, not only between the candidate and the voter, but the exchange process that includes the environment (i.e. government, competitors, media, and so on).

Newman (1999, p. xiii) offers a holistic definition of political marketing as

“the application of marketing principles and procedures in political campaigns by various individuals and organisations. The procedures involve the analysis, development, execution, and management of strategic campaigns by candidates, political parties, governments, lobbyists and interest groups that seek to drive public opinion, advance their own ideologies, win elections, and pass legislation and referenda in response to the needs and wants of selected people and groups in a society”. Political marketing for Newman (1999) is a managerial process that implements application, analysis and procedures to manage campaigns. Also,

Newman explains that political marketing is a social exchange between the party and voters. Newman emphasises on stakeholders as partners (lobbyists and interest groups).

Bagozzi (1975, p. 39) argues that exchange is a central concept in marketing, and it may well serve as the foundation for that elusive general theory of marketing.

The definition of Bagozzi went beyond the relationship between the voters and the candidates that generate from the exchange process to include all the groups of stakeholders.

Lilleker and Less-Marshment (2005, p. 1) argue that marketing is concerned with how organisations behave in relation to their “customers” who choose products and in terms of using techniques in the marketing process. Lees-Marshment (2001) says political marketing is about political organisations adapting techniques and concepts, originally used in business world, to help them achieve their goals. The

Lees-Marshment behaviourist definition focused on the process of the political party behaviour to achieve its objectives through some techniques and concepts of commercial marketing. Lees-Marshment also emphasises on the tools and

techniques, stating that political marketing used strategies that segments, targets and positions the product to achieve objectives.

O’Cass (1996a) echoes the functional and managerial role of commercial marketing to define political marketing as the analysis, planning, implementation, and control of political and electoral programmes designed to create, build and maintain beneficial exchange relationships between a party and voters. Similarly,

Wring (1997) defines political marketing as the party or candidate’s use of opinion research and environmental analysis to produce and promote a competitive offering which will help realise organisational aims and satisfy groups of electors in exchange for their votes. O’Cass (1996a) and Wring (1997) focus on the functional process of political marketing (analysis and research) but consider the environment (internally and externally) to design a promotion offering that enables the political party to achieve its objectives.

Meanwhile, creating long-term relationship builds loyalty between the voters and candidates and consequently sustaining the candidates in the market. A candidate seeks to establish, maintain and enhance long-term relationships at a profit for society, so that the objectives of the individual political actors and organisations involved are met (Henneberg, 2002). Lilleker and Lees-Marshment (2005);

Henneberg (2002); Gronroos (1990) and Ravald and Gronroos (1996) agree that using marketing tools create relationships between the candidate and voters.

Stromback (2010) notes one of the main objectives of integrating marketing into the political domain is to develop long-term relationships between the party/leader and stakeholders.

Therefore, creating long-term relationship marketing has advantages. First, it enables political party/candidate to create long-term customer loyalty. Second, long-

term relationship with voters enables a political party to understand its voters. Day

(2000) argues that organisations utilise long-term relationships to extend the knowledge of the organisation regarding customers. Third, long-term relationships satisfy voters’ social needs. According to Maslow (1943), social needs are one of human needs in a hierarchy that needs to be satisfied. Fourth, long-term relationship maintains the image of a political party within the society. Fifth, long-term relationship enables the political party to achieve its objective in sustaining itself in the market.

In sum, the preceding definitions were discussed from four points of view on political marketing – the exchange process, the relationship, stakeholders and functional activities of political marketing. Although, theories of commercial marketing enrich the field of political marketing, political marketing has evolved almost through the same stage as commercial marketing.

3.5.2 Political Stakeholders

Stakeholders play substantial roles in sustaining candidates for future elections.

Satisfying the needs and wants of stakeholders reflect a candidates’ commitment to the society. According to Ormrod (2017) stakeholder concept is context-specific agents that directly or indirectly influence or are influenced by political actor.

Hughes and Dann (2009) identify 17 types of stakeholders from the broader commercial, political and social marketing literature. These groups are clustered by three targets of the political marketing process; voter, stakeholder and society

(Hughes & Dann, 2009). According to Lees-Marshment (2014, p. 3) political stakeholders include all those interested and with an investment in the party or candidate such as members or volunteers within a political party or campaign, other

politicians, lobbyists, interest groups, donors, the media, professional associations or unions, electoral commission and party or government staff.

Stakeholders’ objectives vary, and these differences of interests often result in conflicts. Each political party has its stakeholders and each group of stakeholders has its objectives . Payne and Holt (2001) offer the ‘six markets’ stakeholders model thus;

1) Customer markets (existing and potential customers and intermediaries);

2) Referral markets (two main categories – existing customers who recommend

their suppliers to others, and referral sources, or multipliers, such as an

accounting firm who may refer to a law firm);

3) Influencer markets (financial analysts, shareholders, the business press, the

government and consumer groups);

4) Employee markets (those concerned with attracting the right employees to the

organisation);

5) Supplier markets (traditional suppliers and organisations with which the firm

has some form of strategies alliance);

6) Internal markets (of the organisation, departments and staff)

The problem that organisations face is about the appropriate strategy to satisfy each group of stakeholders in the shade of the conflict of the objectives of each group. Mitchell et al. (1997) proposed a framework of stakeholders’ attributes to prioritise the groups based on power, legitimacy or urgency. According to Hughes and Dann (2006), legitimacy is the appropriateness of the stakeholder’s actions towards the firm. Urgency is the immediacy with which the firm had to act, and it has a multiplier effect on the influence of the stakeholder’s claim (Neville, Menguc

& Bell, 2003, 2005). However, the urgency and power of the stakeholder have often overruled the legitimacy of a claim.

3.5.3 Evolution of Political Marketing

Obviously, political marketing evolved through almost the same stages of commercial marketing. Shama (1976) traces the evolution of political marketing to three stages of political marketing. These include;

(1) Candidate Orientation Stage. In this stage, the political party focused on the

candidate as a product. This stage covered the period of 1940-1960. This

stage was a candidates’ competition. Politicians used mass media specialists

to help them in announcements and conduct their presentations in introducing

the candidate to the audiences. The aim of the candidate was to maximise

benefits from the voters. Candidates used the political tools with less

awareness. At the candidate-orientation stage, the promotion and distribution

get little attention from the candidates or political parties.

(2) Sales-Orientation Stage. Experience of candidates and political parties

increased during this time. The candidates and political parties became more

aware of how to utilise political communication, message distribution and

promotion. The sales-oriented stage began in the early 1960s after

candidates’ awareness of political marketing increased. The candidates

implemented strategic marketing through planning, distribution targeting and

positioning. Candidates focused on sales more than designing product.

(3) Marketing Orientation Stage. In the shade of development of commercial

marketing, political parties and candidates implemented the tools of

marketing in elections. As Shama argued, the turning point to the market

orientation began with the Watergate era when political parties turned to

satisfy voters’ needs and wants. This shows that the political marketing

discipline is U.S.-centric.

In comparison between commercial and political marketing evolution, commercial marketing started with production-orientation, whereas political marketing started with candidate-orientation (product-orientation). The second stage of commercial marketing was product-orientation; the political marketing’s was sales-orientation. The third stage of commercial marketing was sales-orientation; while political marketing’s was market-orientation. Political marketers skipped the stage of the production-orientation as it is inherent in the product-orientation stage.

Commercial marketing also evolved through four stages; whereas political marketing evolved through three stages. Perhaps, the reason behind skipping the production stage was a result of the marketers’ awareness of the problem encountered in the organisation in producing unwanted products. Hence, they focused on product rather than production.

The similarities in the stages of the evolution of commercial and political marketing also led to differences and similarities in other aspects in both disciplines.

3.6 Similarities and Differences between Commercial and Political Marketing

There are similarities and differences between commercial marketing and political marketing. Newman and Perloff (2004, p.18) cited in Newman found two clear differences between marketing in business and politics. In business, the goal is to make a profit, whereas in politics, it is the successful operation of democracy.

Winning in politics is something based on a few percentage points, whereas in business, the difference between winning and losing is based on huge variations.

Second, in business the implementation of marketing research results is often followed, whereas in politics, the candidate’s own political philosophy can influence the extent to which it is followed.

Kotler and Kotler (1981, 1999) cited in Newman (n.d.) also argue that there are similarities between commercial and political marketing. First, commercial companies and candidates have a market orientation and are constantly engaged in creating value for the customers or voters. Second, companies use marketing research to determine what to stress to different consumer groups. In political marketing, opinion polls have become one of the most important tools of modern democracy. Third, segmenting and targeting are used to identify customer groups to direct their product to the required market. In politics, market segmentation has been traditionally used by each of the potential parties. Fourth, organisations positioned their product to the marketplace. Political parties positioned their candidate to the voters. Fifth, a marketing strategy is a plan of action that is used to implement a series of activities that will ensure success in the market place. A political marketing strategy in politics begins with the recruitment of viable candidates.

The argument is that there are some differences between commercial and political marketing. First, in a commercial organisation, customers can return the product if the product fails to meet expectations. In political marketing, voters cannot return the election to vote for some other candidate. They must wait until the next elections. Second, as mentioned earlier, political marketing has evolved across three stages: product-, sales- and market-orientation. This indicates that production- orientation and product-orientation in commercial marketing are combined in one stage.

The main aspect of marketing is the product. Political product is what the voters want to see, feel and interact with. This is like experiencing the product. What is the political product? What are the features of a political product? These will be discussed in the subsequent section.

3.7 Political Product

Commercial organisations produce goods (products) and/or services to sell and maximise profits. Kotler and Armstrong (2012, p. 51) define product as the goods and services combined that the company offers to the target market. In commercial organisations, products are tangible such as cars, TVs, computers and books or services such as insurance, medical and police services. Products are the outcome of the organisations. Political product is the outcome of a political party or a candidate’s production process. According to Lloyd (2005) political product is “the process and outcome associated with the management of national security, social stability and economic growth on behalf of the electorate”.

Political products are more complicated than commercial products. The points of view of authors’ definitions of political product mirror its complication. For example, Kotler and Kotler (1999) note political product is not just a slogan, but it is the basis for planning and organising an entire campaign. It shapes the coalitions that are formed, issue positions that are embraced, statements that are made, public appearances, the allocation of effort to voter segments, and many other decisions.

The argument is that political product is a mosaic that contains a group of pieces each piece of it not only completes the product, but it develops the concept of the political product in the cognition of the voter. Lees-Marshment (2001) considers the party’s product as its behaviour that encompasses many attributes, is ongoing and

offered at all times (not just elections), at all levels of party. Lees-Marshment (2001) adds that a party’s product includes the leadership, MPs, (and candidates), membership, staff, symbols, constitution, activities such as party conferences and policies. Political product can also be an idea (Newman, 1994), the philosophy, programmes and policies of the party (Reid, 1988). The political product is the personality, ideology and principles of the candidate (O’Shaughnessy, 1999; Kraus,

1999), and the voice of voters in the government (O’Leary & Iredale, 1976). Butler and Collins (1999) consider them as traits and characteristics of political product.

Butler and Collins (1999) consider candidate (person), party (behaviour) and ideology as characteristics of political product.

Moreover, products include experience of customer when dealing with an organisation (McDonald & Dunbar 2004, p.152). It is the behaviour of the organisation (Lees-Marshment, 2001; Butler & Collins, 1999) that influenced the voters’ perception about the organisation.

Butler and Collins (1999) cite that political product has traits, which is considered multicomponent (person/party/ideology). This means that political product encompasses the candidate, political party and its ideology. Butler and

Collins consider the three traits of the political product as one concept. First, it is the use of multi-components to describe the concept of political marketing. Second, is the use of the three components of political product by using (and) not (or) to represent the interaction in these three terms. The political product from Butler and

Collins’ view point is a mixture of concepts.

According to Brassington and Pettitt (1997, p. 254), political product is divided into three groups of bundles of benefits (values). The first product is the central product (core product), where the ideology is, where all aspects of a political

party are grounded, and it is the very principle of its existence and being, since it is the heart of the product. Lloyd (2005) argues that when some changes to the part of a central product are suggested, they shake the very foundation of a party. The second level of the product is the tangible product. This aspect is the political product that is, the elector. It is characterised by all aspects of marketing mix. The third ring of the political product is the augmented product, which is the less tangible aspects such as the experience of voting, the feeling of belonging and the satisfaction of election promises fulfilled. The outer ring of the political product is the potential product.

This product represents the dynamic and strategic nature of the product (Brassington

& Pettitt, 1997).

It is important for the political party to consider the quality of its product.

Thus, designing the political product should be based on the value that will be added to voters, which should be based on information from market intelligence. Designing a political product is more complicated than designing a commercial product. Butler and Collins (1999, p, 58) argue that the three components are indivisible. They add that confusion and even contradiction among the components of the offer is a pronounced trait in this context. For example, a voter might support the only candidate of his or her preferred party despite not having any confidence in the candidate personality vice versa.

According to Lees-Marshment et al. (2018) designing political program should present the product the voters wants and needs. Lees-Marshment et al. (2018) argues that health was top issue, closely followed by the economy, then housing, education, social welfare and the environment. She adds that the products offered by

Labour, New Zealand First, and the Greens were the most closely aligned with public opinion in terms of policy, while Labour offered the most likeable leadership.

Voters and various stakeholders hold different perceptions. Thus, designing political product should be based on how voters and the other stakeholders want to see the product. Culture is the main factor when designing the political product. In some Islamic countries, political parties realise that associating the product to the ideology of Islam is an important principle in designing their product. Political parties in such countries associate their product with Islamic ideology (symbols, slogans, banners, etc) to link its product to some emotional motives of audience.

Slogans can express the character or aims of the candidate and can be catchy phrases for voters at the polling time to remember. Slogans are virtually the key entrance to exhibitor’s mentality and orientations. Stimulatingly, they can strongly attract people’s attention regardless of their backgrounds, being different socially, economically, educationally and more important, politically. However, from the functional and managerial perspectives, slogans present the candidates’ strategies, missions and visions; they are influenced by values of the candidate, the social, cultural and political issues of the country. In the USA for example, female candidates designed their slogans to present feminine values and on the other hand, they show that they are strong. Female candidates craft campaign slogans to demonstrate their expertise in masculine issue domains or remind voters that they are sufficiently masculine to do the job. Dianne Feinstein used the slogan “Tough but

Caring” when running for governor of California (Morris 1992; Sullivan 1998, cited in Dolan et al, 2007, p. 163).

In Communist China, where sloganeering is pervasive, political slogans are

“coined to meet changing need of social conditions as well as the need of authorities to establish control’ and that the pervasive use of these slogans altered the face of

Communist China and affected the Chinese thought pattern” (Lu 1999, p. 487).

Bertelsen (1996, p. 225) argues that slogans reflected political and cultural issues.

Wei (2000) found that the slogans used in the 1996 presidential campaign in Taiwan present a famous metaphor such as war and revenge.

Some female candidates presented themselves in masculine image to show their abilities to hold national responsibilities. Dolan et al. (2007, p. 140) for example, mentioned that when former South Carolina state legislator Harriet

Keyserling was considering her first run for office, she doubted her own qualifications, stating that: “I conjured up so many reasons not to run – I was shy, I was afraid of speaking in public, I did not know enough about government or the men who ran it” (Keyserling, 1998, p. 47).

Table 3.1 Slogans of female candidates in the 2002 Senate Elections, USA Slogans used by women “Fighting for Maryland’s Families” - Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Democrat-Maryland, Governor.

“I will fight to Protect Our Families and Educate Our Kids” - Jennifer Granholm. Democrat- Michigan, Governor.

“Making Alaska the Best Place to Live and Raise a Family” - Fran Ulmer, Democrat-Alaska, Governor.

“Quality Education, Ethical Government” - Jimmie Lou Fischer, Democrat-Arizona, Governor.

“Kentucky Families Are My Special Interest” - Lois Combs Weinberg, Democrat-Kentucky, Senate.

Source: Dolan et al. (2007, p. 164)

Dolan et al. (2007, p. 164) illustrated slogans used by women in the 2002

Senate elections in Table 3.1 above in the USA. Women slogans presented their programmes which reflected feminine-orientation such as families, best places to live and education. Slogans represent the female candidates’ orientation. Slogans are one of the features of political product which should be designed to send the right message to a targeted audience. Women candidates often included values of families in their campaign slogans.

In sum, political product is a cluster of small parts that complement each other to come up with a concept to persuade voters. Political product can be an idea, leader, election programme, the party, promises, the candidate or slogans that the voters need to satisfy their needs.

3.8 Political Branding

Branding is one of the political strategies that candidates need to design to reflect a candidate’s mission and vision. Lilleker (2005, p. 8) mentioned that Aaker (1991) argues that a brand is a distinguishing name and/or symbol, such as a logo, trademark or package, designed with the intention to identify the goods or services of either one seller or a group of sellers, and to differentiate those goods or services from competitors’.

Political brand designing is a complicated process. Smith (2001, p. 992) argues that research in political brand image is “of critical importance and as such merits further analysis”. French and Smith (2010, Mortimore et al., 2014) argue that the limited research has tended to be adopt a measurable, quantitative approach.

Brand image needs to be in-depth analysis based on qualitative research. Mortimore et al. (2014) focuses on the problematic nature of using image attributes designed for an earlier study.

Mengxia (2007, p. 36) defines brand image as “the set of mental representations, emotional and/or cognitive an individual or a group of individuals ascribe to a brand. Brand image also defined as a set of perceptions about an organisation, product or brand developed in the mind of consumer (Bosch et al.

2006).

Lock and Harris (1996) observe that the leader becomes a visible symbol of the political brand, sometimes even the brand itself (Harris et al, 1999, p. 544).

Cosgrove (2015, p. 107) argues that branding offers important advantages to the political practitioner because it can sum up a complicated series of events or ideas, give meaning to an individual or incident, and provide consistency of message over time with which one-off efforts simply cannot compete. According to Schweiger and

Adami (1999, p. 350), a candidate needs a strategy to design his or her brand.

Burton and Shea (2010, p. 134) state that “a brand’s identity is said to comprise the full range of attributes that consumers associate with a product or service”. Burton and Shea add that many political professionals have come to use the language of brand management to describe what they do. Scammell (2015) argues that position brand as the conceptual tools that can best capture both tangible and intangible components that work together to construct the reputation and image of political leaders and of the parties. Pich et al. (2014) defines brand identity as the internally envisaged aspirations communicated to the target audience.

Reeves et al., (2006) mentions that with the decline of ideology, political marketing face a revolution to shift from ‘ideology-driven’ to ‘market-driven’ (Lees-

Marshment, 2004). Hence, political parties need to design their brand based on the needs of the electorate through market research and polling evidence. According to

Muzellec and Lambkin (2006), rebranding strategies must aim at convincing internal stakeholders to behave according to the new project’s brand promise.

Pich and Dianne (2015) identify six dimensions of the political brand identity; 1) physique (could accommodate tangible qualities of the Party brand and go beyond the brand logo and colours), 2) personality (can be applied to the personality dimension of the brand identity prism), 3) culture in terms of the values

and themes relating to the heritage of the party, 4) relationship (represents the relationship with the stakeholders), 5) reflection (the reflection dimension focused on the expected support of the party brand from the perspective of internal stakeholders and not the target market, 6) self-image it can be proposed that brand identity is the desired identity of a brand developed and promoted by stakeholders. Dean et al.

(2015) argue that the difficulties of designing an authentic political brand refer to; first the crucial aspect of dealing with the complexity of the political network and relationship marketing and second, developing a political brand that shares voters’ aspiration and gives them something to believe in. It is important that a candidate should carefully design their brand, but it is most important to know how voters see the brand. The stronger the political brand equity, the more the brand will be recognisable to voters as a point of differentiation for party (Grimmer & Grube,

2017).

Bosch et al. (2006) introduces a six variables brand image framework. The six components of brand image are; strength, uniqueness, expectations, perceptions and associations, experiences and evaluations. Pich and Armannsdottir (2015) examined the Bosch et al band image framework in the 2010 UK General Election.

Pich and Armannsdottir (2015) find that there is limited understanding devoted to political brand image which goes beyond the usual measurable, quantitative approach. Also the study reveals that three variables (uniqueness, perceptions and association, and expectations) required no adaptation to explore the three elements of the Conservative Party brand.

3.9 Political Marketing

Buyers and sellers exchange valuable things in a place called market. The concept of market has been changed due to the advanced technology. Marketing nowadays takes place in the virtual market. Also, buyers and sellers are not the only participants in the marketplace; individuals and organisations are also involved. The market is basically where buyers and sellers meet to exchange value. Kotler and Armstrong

(2012, p. 7) define the marketplace as “the set of all actual and potential buyers of a product or service”. However, the main group that a candidate targets are voters. The market place included other groups who are interested in the political marketing process. For example, Kotler and Levy (1969) argue that political market consisted of people and organisations that possessed resources and an objective to trade those resources.

In political marketing, candidates targeted voters in their campaigns. The voters are the main and final target, but candidates also targeted other stakeholders. It is true that the only group who voted for the candidates are the voters. Other groups do not vote for the candidates, but they have influence on the voters and the candidates. Kotler and Kotler (1999, p.10) argue that the political marketplace consists of the stakeholders such as financial contributors, and other forms of support, including word-of-mouth endorsements to other voters.

According to Newman (1999, p. 5), candidates face five different markets in organising political campaigns; i) voters, ii) activists, interest groups, and organised constituencies, voters and donations (labours and business, civil rights organisations), iii) the media, iv) party organisation, and v) donors and financial contributors.

Similarly, Lees-Marshment (2014, p. 3) agree with Mortimore and Gill

(2010, p. 257) that political stakeholders include all those interested and with an investment in the party or candidate such as members or volunteers within a political party or campaign, other politicians, lobbyists, interest groups, donors, the media, professional associations or unions, electoral commission and party or government staff.

In sum, the exchange process exists between two parties. To accomplish the exchange process, during marketing, the parties need clear communication. Political parties utilise communication tools to send their messages to their voters such as publications, magazine, pamphlets, radio and television.

3.10 Political Communication

Political communication is the back bone of the political marketing. Candidates need clear channels to send their messages to their voters. Maarek (1995) in his definition of political marketing considers the importance of political communication. Maarek

(1995) notes that political marketing is a complex process, the outcome of a more global effort implicating all the factors of the politician’s political communication.

Maarek (1995, p. 28) argues that political marketing is also the general method of political communication.

Communication plays a substantial role in political marketing. Lasswell

(1972) in his book focuses on the propaganda messages between German versus the

French, British and Americans in World War I. Lasswell (1972) summarised his book in a five-question model of communication. He questioned: Who says what to, whom via, which channels, and with what effects? At the time Lasswell published his book, there were few communication channels. Nowadays, the communication tools

and skills of candidates have developed. A political party or a candidate has variety of communication channels to communicate to the public. Lasswell’s questions are still raised; who sends the message? What is the message? To whom this message should be sent? Via which channels should the message be sent? What effects does the message have? These questions are a strategy to enable the message to achieve the desired goals.

A candidate needs a communication strategy to position his or her product, and to communicate with his or her internal and external stakeholders. As Kolovos and Harris (2005), and Newman (1999) note, communication is the central part of political marketing. Kinsey (1999) argues that interpersonal communication is another technique incorporated. Political communication enables a political party to position its product in the targeted market. Scammell (1999) argues that political communicators perceive political marketing as a response to developments in media and communication technologies. Kavanagh (1995, 1996) argues that political marketing is a set of strategies and tools used to study the people’s opinion before and during election campaign to develop political communication and to assess its impact on various audiences. Lees-Marshment (2001b) indicates that political marketing is much more than just political communication, combining in a strategic approach campaigning, political communication, market intelligence, and product design and product promotion.

A political party persuades voters to vote its candidate(s), and not to vote in the opponent of the party’s candidate. To motivate voters, a political party uses techniques to change attitudes of voters. Convincing voters requires persuasion, in which a communicator induces a change in beliefs, attitudes or behaviours of another person or group of persons through the transmission of a message (Perloff, 1993).

According to Perloff (1993), the voters in political communications are largely dependent on the messages communicated.

In today’s political marketing, media are powerful and important sources of information. The media has double tasks; sending messages of the candidates to stakeholders and providing information of voters to the candidates. Media influences voting behaviour and there is evidence that they do because they draw attention to the candidates and their campaigns (Bystrom 2007, p.170). The internet also has an increasing impact as a political tool since the Clinton/AlGor campaign in 1992 used email, bulletin boards and online discussion groups to disseminate information

(Carpenter, 2010). Social network such as Twitter, Facebook, SMS, Instagram and emails have become an information source that can rapidly disseminate innovative information. Ling (2004) notes teenagers and young people are the main users of mobile messages. These social networks shape the way individuals think, interact, behave and organise (Sevin et al., 2011).

The internet is a new channel of communication and new chance to place political parties as brand (Schweiger & Adami, 1999, p. 350). According to Johnson

(1999, p. 710) by 1998, campaign websites were standard, almost indispensable, communication tools. In the 2007 French presidential elections, two main candidates waged high profile online campaigns (Vaccari, 2008; Vedel & Michalska, 2007).

In 1998, the Political Resources Directory listed 125 campaign websites for the Senate or Congress; 98 for governor, state legislator, or other state office; and 29 for local offices (Johnson, 1999, p. 710).

According to Maarek (2011, p. 93), interactive communication tools have clear advantage of being the most accurate and potentially, the most effective. The politicians meet directly with his electors, offering them the opportunity to react

immediately to his communication. Maarek (2011) argues that direct contact with voters is naturally the oldest form of political communication. However, this direct face-to-face method is the most powerful way of communication. Today, in democratic countries, it is almost inconceivable to hold a free election without at least one televised debate between the main candidates, or those still in the running after a first ballot.

Nowadays, social media is one of the most influential communication tools in elections. Users of social network have increased in the last two decades. A survey of online political participation in the United Kingdom found that around 17%, which is about a fifth of all internet users, have participated in using the internet such as

‘visiting a website”, ‘signing an online petition”, ‘sending an e-postcard’, or

“participating in a chat room” or “email discussion board” (Ward et al., 2003).

Stanyer (2007, p. 168) notes that in the U.S., the number of people joining political discussion and chat groups during election campaigns have grown from two million in 1996 to six million in 2004.

The Statistica Portal (2014) data in Figure 3.1 (overleaf) also showed that social networks attract people because it is a network to share ideas and information besides their social relationships. For example, numbers of active users on social media were: Facebook (1.32 billion), QZone (645 million), Google+ (343 million),

LinkedIn (300 million), Twitter (271 million), Tumblr (230 million), and Tencent

Weibo (220 million):

Figure 3.1: Numbers of active users on social media Source: Statistica Portal, 2014

Users of social media in the GCC, specifically the young generation are increasing, especially with the applications in smart devices. Statistics of Digitalqatar in 2012 show 70% of Facebook users are young people who are between the ages of

5-29 years in Arab countries. In Bahrain, there are one million social media active users in the second half of 2013 (Bin Dayneh, 2013). In the 2014 parliamentary election in the KoB, only 5 (6%) out of 80 used social media in the election, whereas,

94% of the candidates were not aware of the importance of the social media in elections (Sebkar, 2014).

Maarek (2015) argues that digital media have noticeably enhanced the possibilities of political communication. The enhancement has been very rapid. For example, there is danger when digital media noise forces a politician to withdraw because of personal attacks based on tiny mishaps or false rumours; and when it impedes a government trying to enforce its actions. All these make the democratic process to become endangered.

3.10.1 Culture in Political Communication

Doubtless that culture influences political communication, Street (2012) notes that political parties used popular culture as tools of political communication. For example, the Nazis’ used film in works likes The Triumph of the Will of how a form of mass culture was used to convey a message (Steinweis, 1993). Also, Soviet Union, particularly under Stalin, placed forms of popular culture in the service of communist propaganda (Ross, 2007; Starr, 1983). In democratic states, film and popular music were part of election campaigns (Davis & Wells, 2002).

In sum, candidates need to design a communication strategy that identify target voters, design the message to be sent to targeted groups of voters, identify the appropriate communication channels and control the process of the communication.

Candidates should also be aware that political communication is influenced by culture.

3.11 Strategic Political Marketing

Political marketing nowadays is planned and organised to achieve the objective of the election campaigns. Candidates need to design their strategy. The term ‘strategy’ came from the planning, manoeuvring and tactics of the military. Liddell Hart (1967) in his book “strategy” concluded that Clausewitz defines strategy as the art of the employment of battles to gain the object of war. Liddell offers a definition of strategy as “the art of distributing and applying military means to fulfil the ends of policy.

Chandler (1962) argues that strategy is “the determination of basic long-term of enterprise, and the adoption of courses of actions and the allocation of resources necessary to carry out these goals. Also, Schendel and Hatten (1972) focus on the objectives of the organisation in their definition of strategy as “the basic goals and

objectives of the organisation, the major programmes of action chosen to reach these goals and objectives, and the major pattern of resource allocation used to relate the organisation to its environment”. Strategy from this sense is determining the objectives of the candidate or the political party. According to Mintzberg (1994), organisations utilise strategy in four ways; as a plan, pattern, position or perspective.

Strategy is to identify the objectives, segment the market, determine the tools that are needed to target the required market and put the plan in action. Andrews

(1980, p. 18) defines strategy as “the pattern of decisions in a company that determines and reveals its objectives, purpose or goals produces the principal policies and plans for achieving those goals and defines the range of business the company is to pursue, the kind of economic and human organisation it is or intends to be, and the nature of the economic and non-economic contribution it intends to make to its shareholders, employees, customers and communities”.

According to Henneberg (2009), political marketing management dimension is described as the art and science of managing the political exchange process. Two management topics are considered: marketing strategy and marketing communications. These are taken as proxies for the conventional analysis, planning and execution process of management; segmentation for analysis, positioning for planning and communication for execution (Butler & Harris, 2009). Political parties need a marketing strategy that enables them to compete in elections. Kotler et al.

(1999) define marketing strategy as “a marketing logic by which the business unit hopes to achieve its marketing objectives”.

Thus, the aims of political parties are to achieve their objectives. Hence, they use strategic marketing, which include: segmenting the voters, targeting them into small or even niche markets and positioning their product to the targeted voters.

3.11.1 Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning

The marketplace consists of varied types of voters based on their characters, attitudes, behaviours, beliefs, needs and wants. Targeting the market is a strategy used when a market has similar characteristics or when an organisation provided products for a huge market and has the knowledge that the market needs its products.

However, one useful strategy is to fragment the market.

A candidate should fragment the market into groups (markets) to deliver its product to the targeted market (voters). Kotler and Armstrong (2012) define segmentation as dividing a market into groups of buyers who have different needs, characteristics, or behaviours, and who might require separate products or marketing programmes. Shama (1975) defines market segmentation as the process by which consumers and potential consumers of the product are distinguished along one or more variable to create homogeneous groups and select some of them as target groups to offer a satisfactory product mix and achieve the company’s goals.

According to Newman and Perloff (2004, p. 22), commercial market segmentation and targeting are used to understand those segments of customers toward whom the marketer directs the product and promotional campaign. In politics, market segmentation has been traditionally used by each of the political parties to choose which groups of people are targeted with their appeals. Market segmentation disaggregate markets into cluster of buyers with similar tastes, preferences and purchasing behaviour, offers an insight into the more precise nature of demand in the marketplace or among the electorate (Butler & Harris, 2009).

There is no standard framework of segmenting voters. However, authors propose frameworks of segmenting voters. For example, Kotler and Armstrong

(2012) argue that market can be divided based on geographic, psychographic, and

behavioural bases. The geographic basis include: regions, nations, countries, cities, and towns. Demographic basis include: ages, gender, family size, family life cycle, occupation, income, race, generation and nationality. Psychographic basis include: lower- lower, upper- lower, middle class, upper middle, lower- upper, and upper- upper working class in society. Behavioural basis include: buyers who buy on regular occasions, special occasions, holiday, and across season. Buyers can be divided according to their behaviours such as buyers who are looking for quality, services, and economy.

Similarly, voters can be divided into groups based on shared common interests. O’Shaughnessy (1987) and Reid (1988) note that parties and candidates need to formulate policies based on identifying key individuals’ interests and enthusiasm. Paul and Baines (1999) cite that Smith and Saunders (1990) identified four methods to segment voters, namely; geography, behaviour, psychography, and demography. Geographic segmentation includes: the use of age, gender, street location. Behavioural segmentation according to Smith and Saunders (1990) cite in

Downs (1957) would not be interested in learning about parties’ and candidates’ policies, but they would select parties only based on their general propositions.

Psychographic segmentation, according to Ahmed and Jackson (1979), allows voters to be segmented based on their attitudes towards welfare to produce different market segments. Demographic segmentation, according to Robbin (1980) segments voters based on electoral information such as electoral registration.

Ormrod (2011) argues that there are various ways of segmenting voters.

Voters can be fragmented into loyal, swing and potential voters. Loyal voters are those who always vote for the party. Swing voters are those who make up their mind at each election and those who always vote for other parties. Potential voters are non-

voters, for example, the young who might not be able to vote at the next election but will be able to vote in the long run. McGough (2005, p. 103) argues that Sinn Fein conducted market intelligence to identify six target markets; Northern nationalist

Catholics, Northern Catholic community, Alliance and Soft Ulster Unionist supporters, Republic of Ireland voters, Orga Sinn Fein – the all-Ireland youth wing and Irish American /international support.

There is no standard method to segment market, but traditionally political party segment markets on geographic, cultural, political and demographic basis. Each country or society has been divided according to the characteristic of the society.

Segmentation is then used to divide the voters who share same interests and characteristics.

Targeting the required market is the second stage of the political marketing strategy. Kotler and Armstrong (2012, p. 201) define a target as “a set of buyers sharing common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve”. Kotler and Armstrong (2012, p. 49) offer another definition of market targeting as “the process of evaluating each market segment’s attractiveness and selecting one or more segments to enter”.

Worcester and Baines (2006, p. 12) note that American voters were targeted in the US Presidential Elections based on their position on a perceptual map outlining; conservative-liberal and anti-administration/pro-administration continuation. Canadian voters in the Canadian Provincial Elections were targeted based on their attitudes toward welfare (Ahmed & Jackson, 1979). Lees- Marshment

(2010) notes that the Labour Party in the 2005 parliamentary election in New

Zealand targeted student and tenants of state house markets. Knuckey (2010) cites that Newman (1994) mentions that in 1976, Jimmy Carter’s Presidential campaign

adopted marketing technique that appeal to different segments of the electorate.

Knuckey (2010) argues that Bill Clinton and George W. Bush segmented voters to build a winning electoral strategy.

A political party needs to identify the number of voters, their needs and wants and what are the best tools to communicate with them. Identifying how many voters should be targeted would determine the budget and the suitable communication tools to be used. For example, young people use social media such as Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook more than older people, who normally get information from newspapers and television.

Once a candidate targets the required market, he/she positions him/herself.

Kotler and Armstrong (2012, p. 49) define positioning as “arranging for a product to occupy a clear, distinctive, and desired place relative to competing products in the minds of target consumers”. To position a candidate in the market, he/she analyses the positioning strategy. According to Newman (n.d.), positioning is a multi-stage process that a candidate uses to evaluate self and opponents’ strengths and weaknesses. However, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the candidate and his/her opponent is not a complete strategy. Candidates also need to see the big picture of the electoral environment, to take advantage of any opportunity and minimise threats that could negatively influence the positioning process. Positioning process depends on the market that a candidate targets, whether it is a new market or not. A candidate carefully positions him/herself to the target market. There are many tools that can be used to position the candidate in the market using communication tools. Candidates use images, slogans, posters, banners, meetings and presentations to position themselves as product in elections.

Floating voters make a difference in the candidates’ results in elections.

Baines (1999) states that Hays and McAllister (1996, p. 139) notes that “from a marketing perspective, floating voters could be considered individuals with no brand loyalty”. Baer (1995) suggests that candidates should form a strategy that has an overall theme (broadcast message) and maintains momentum. This should effectively target specialised groups of floating voters that can change the pattern of an election result and communicate with the wider audience in general.

In conclusion, strategic marketing is a method deployed to understand the market (voters). It starts from analysing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) internally and externally. Such a strategy analysis generates the understanding of the environment. Segmenting, targeting and positioning the product is the implementation of a strategy analysis which provide a holistic view of the scene.

3.12 Models of Political Marketing

Frameworks have been introduced to identify political parties’ orientations. The frameworks focused on the strategies and practices of the political parties. For example, Niffenegger (1989) introduced his 4Ps framework of political marketing process. Marketing process should be integrated to cover all the marketing aspects

(Niffenegger 1989). Hence, political marketing strategy considers the 4Ps (product, price, place, and promotion) to win election. Niffenegger’s framework of tactics for political marketing focuses on voters’ behaviour and the environment which is changeable. A political party modifies its strategy and tactics using the 4Ps to compete in elections. Niffenegger’s framework can be characterised as political marketing strategy-orientated.

Butler and Collins (1999) identify a conceptual framework for political marketing. The basis of their framework is that political marketing presents structural characteristics such as the nature of product, the organisation, the market and the process characteristics which exhibit, develop and deliver value. Butler and Collins’ framework is a conceptual framework that represents functional marketing. Wring

(1996) introduces three stages of political marketing process namely; production, selling and marketing. To implement these terms of marketing to political marketing,

Wring (1996) proposed propaganda, media and political marketing. Wring’s framework focuses on communication and this illustrates sales-oriented party.

Henneberg et al., (2009) classifies the schools of the theory of political marketing management (PMM) into three categories: sales-oriented PMM, instrumental-oriented PMM and relational PMM. Ormrod (2011) proposes a model of political marketing orientation (PMO). The framework considers six stakeholders; voter, internal, competitor, meso-societal, macro-societal and micro-societal orientation. Ormrod’s definition of political marketing focuses on the stakeholders’ interests. Ormrod’s model is based on two dimensions; behaviour of the party and information flow. The information is collected from internal and external stakeholders to generate the strategy of marketing and provide long-term strategy as the party builds its strategy on the information from stakeholders. However, this model is more product-oriented rather than market-oriented, which designs its product and strategy based on the information from stakeholders.

Lees-Marshment (2001a) introduces a three-approach model of political marketing orientation in Figure 3.2 below:

Product-oriented Party Sales-oriented Party Market-oriented Party

Stage 1: Stage 1: Stage 1: Market Intelligence Product Design Product Design

Stage 2: Stage 2: Market Intelligence Product Design Stage 3: Product Adjustment

Stage 2: Stage 3: Stage 4: Communication Communication Product Implementation Stage 5: Communication Stage 3: Stage 4: Campaign Campaign Stage 6: Campaign Stage 4: Stage 5: Election Election Stage 7: Election

Stage 5: Stage 6: Stage 8: Delivery Delivery Delivery

Figure 3.2: POP, SOP and MOP Model Source: Adopted from Lees-Marshment (POP, SOP & MOP) model (2001a)

Lees-Marshment introduced a model after long considerations of three practices; communication, philosophy and orientation of political parties before, during and after elections to come up with a model that characterises the political party or a candidate. Lees-Marshment (2001a) focuses on the behaviour of the political parties. The model covers all aspects of political marketing orientations, which were presented in other frameworks. The model characterises the political party or candidate in terms of POP, SOP or/and MOP. The theory contributes to the knowledge of social science. Lees-Marshment (2001a) introduces a three-approach model (product-, sales- and market-oriented).

When adopting a typical Product-oriented Party (POP), the political party focuses on the product design. Product might be (ideology/candidate/party). A POP goes through a five-stage marketing process; product design, communication, campaign, general elections and delivery.

Sales-Oriented Party (SOP): The political party which is characterised as

SOP depends on the skills of selling. Hence, the SOP uses communication in its activities to persuade voters. The SOP’s electoral process goes through six stages; product design, market intelligence, communication, campaign and election. If the

SOP wins, then it delivers its product.

Market-Orientated Party (MOP) designs the election campaign based on what the market needs and wants. Hence, the MOP heavily depends on the market intelligence in its election campaign. The process of the MOP election campaign goes through market intelligence, product design and product adjustment. To ensure that the product fits and satisfies the needs and wants of voters, MOP adjusts its product. The product is adjusted based on: achievability, internal reaction, competition and support analysis. Once MOP finds that the product satisfies the voters, the next stage is implementation, communication, campaign, election, and delivery.

3.12.1 Advantages and Disadvantages of POP, SOP and MOP

Each of POP, SOP and MOP has advantages and disadvantages to a political party.

Each approach does not fit everywhere and anytime. A product-oriented party designs its products and marketing strategy to sell the product. This approach can be an advantage for strong-rooted products like the ones rooted on ideological principles. Voters are attracted to the product if it is associated with emotional

aspects in the case of religion. For example, groups such as Al Qaeda or the so-called

Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) attracted young people to join their troops and fight. Both groups created terrorism as a product, but they covered and packaged it as an Islamic brand, where they used some verses of the Quran to serve their objectives and associate their product with Islam.

Historically, commercial management shifts from product-orientation to sales-orientation because the organisations produced what the market does not need and want. Product-oriented organisations design and represent products under an old philosophy of “take it or leave it”. Thus, designing a product on the base of prediction put political party at risk that the market does not want.

However, decision-making in a product-oriented party is based on the centralisation of the leadership. Behaviour of product-oriented party members is standardised because of the centralisation of decision in the leadership. The party faces problem with voters who are members of the party and who believe in different ideologies.

Sales-oriented party is based on the short-term relationship. In business, sales-oriented firms attract relay on tactics such as coupons, buy-two-get one and discounts. In politics, sales-oriented party depends on the communication for short- term relationship. Sales-oriented party needs high skills to persuade voters that the candidate is the best. A sales-oriented party spends a lot of money to create communication and in training its candidate to use presentation, persuading and speech skills to convince voters to vote for him.

A market-oriented party designs its product based on the voters’ needs and wants. In the shade of the media, globalisation and high technology allow voters to be more educated and make higher demands. Market intelligence also provides

wrong information about voters’ needs and wants to put the political party at risk.

Small political parties, which have no abilities to conduct market research might design their product based on wrong information due to lack of market intelligence.

Voters adapt experience from other countries and become more demanding. Thus, to design the product on voters’ needs and wants, the party shifts from market-oriented to voter-oriented in designing its product.

Market-oriented and sales-oriented parties are organic parties in nature because they both interact with voters and design their products and behaviours based on voters’ reaction. Market-oriented parties are designed based on the data from market intelligence. The data from market intelligence are based on the voters’ reaction. In a MOP, once the party designs its product, the product is adjusted to ascertain the voters’ needs. These processes of market intelligence, product designing, and adjustment create relationship between the party and voters in social context.

Similarly, the sales-oriented party designs its product and enhances the presentation and selling skills. This approach enables the party to interact with stakeholders to create a relationship to reflect the dynamic and interaction process of the party. The product-oriented party designs its product based on beliefs and ideology and in centralised process. The product-oriented party does not change its product based on voters’ interaction but based on the leader’s decision. Thus, the product-oriented party is mechanical in nature.

3.13 Countries’ Perspectives of Political Marketing

Several studies revealed that political parties around the world utilised political marketing. Behaviours of political parties differ from one country to another and

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from one election to another. For example, Cwalina et al. (2012) argues that political marketing assumes that all marketing actions in politics depend on a country’s political system and its components. Political marketing practices, although change.

Dennis identified an ongoing shift from a 20th century political campaigning environment where American marketing innovation worked within centrally controlled top-down campaigns in candidate vs. Candidate races, to a 21st –century model in which political marketing has to react both to bottom-up communications from multiple sources and to campaigns increasingly nationalization not just by political party organisations but also by issue group external to the formal candidate campaign structure (cite in Davies, 2017). Many factors are responsible for the behaviours of political parties. Cwalina et al. (2012) argues that there are four fundamental types of political orientations; candidate-oriented democracy such as the

USA, party-leader-oriented democracy which can be seen in the UK or Mexico, party-oriented democracy as in Poland, Finland, Czech Republic or Romania and government-oriented democracy in countries such as Russia, China and other countries that the political parties are dominated by government.

Lees-Marshment et al. (2010, p. 280) summarises political parties’ behaviour and the degree to which the parities are sales- or market-oriented. The practices of political marketing in the following section are divided into categories based on the regions. Each of these regions shares almost similar cultural elements.

Parties in Germany for example, used market intelligence and communication techniques. According to Maier et al. (2010) German parties concentrated their efforts during election period. Hence, they are characterised as sale-oriented party

(Lees-Marshment, 2001). Maier et al. (2010) mentions that Germany faced some fundamental change within the socio-cultural and media environment of German

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politics, especially since the 1980s, where no German party showed that they are market-oriented or product-oriented. Similarly, in Sweden, a moderate party shifted from sale-oriented to market-oriented party (Stromback, 2010). Stromback adds that smaller parties such as the Left Party and the Green Party tended towards product- orientation. Stromback mentions that no party admits to utilising focus groups or polls when developing party policies, which indicates that the parties are not market- oriented. In conclusion, Stromback found that most Swedish parties should be characterised as sale-oriented parties, rather than product or market-oriented ones.

Also, Mensah (2010) conducted a study in one of African countries where political parties are product-oriented and discovers that both major parties made significant use of marketing techniques. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New

Patriotic Party (NPP) were aware of the role of communication. Mensah (2010) adds that neither the NDC nor the NPP are product-oriented parties. Both parties retained some commitment to an ideology, more explicit for the NDC, but still evident for the

NPP in its support for free-market economic policy. NDC utilised marketing intelligence to find party weaknesses rather than what were the policy needs of citizens. Mensah (2010) characterised that both political parties are sales-oriented.

In the U.K., Lees-Marshment (2010) argues that there are differences for the

Conservatives (1979-1992), and for the Labour (1997- 2005), and New Labour in government (2001-2005). Thus, while the sales- and market-approach is not clear anymore; the parties can be characterised as product-oriented. Kotzaivazoglou and

Zotos (2010) say that no Greek party was market-oriented in either 2004 or 2007.

Kotzaivazoglou and Zotos (2010) mention that the NDC may have largely followed market-orientation principles before the elections, but its performance in certain

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areas such as making sure its product is achievable and it delivered in government has been poor.

In Hungary, there is no wholly product-oriented party among the important ones (Kiss & Mihalyffy, 2010). The parties in Hungary were sales-oriented in most cases. The Alliance of Young Democrats (Fidesz) party did not focus enough to the other aspects that a market-oriented party should be. Hungarian Socialist Party

(MSZP) proved to be a more responsive political party, but not to the social and economic needs and wants of the voters. The Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) may have contributed to the success of the party. This relationship between market- orientation and electoral success occurred in the context of the Hungarian election of

2006. The Alliance of Free Democrat Party’s (SZDSZ) behaviour was product- orientated strategy, which was unsuccessful. The party became fearfully close to falling out of parliament and shifted to clear sales-orientation in 2006.

The Czech Republic has a short tradition of using political marketing methods (Matuskova et al, 2010). According to the authors, since the fall of communism, only five parliamentary elections took place. Matuskova et al., 2010 note that the Democratic Party (CSSD) utilised political techniques to analyse the market, update their tactics based on the development of the campaign, and devised strategies aimed at specific groups of voters. The party was the first in the country to define its campaign strategy, messages and programmes.

In Russia, Hutcheson (2010) uses the term “parties of power”. In his study to refer to some approaches to market-orientated strategy and create a “catch-all” product utilising their core asset – Vladimir Putin. Hutcheson (2010) argues that it is not only the parties which are adapting to the market, but the market itself is adapted to parties, and the “parties of power” have grafted a market-oriented approach onto a

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strong sales-based approach based on Putin’s reputation. Hutcheson (2010) argued that “parties of power” have developed a market-sales hybrid to sell a product and to define the marketplace in the first place.

In the United States, parties vary in their orientations. In the case of their political parties, Knuckey (2010) notes that the potential for a market-oriented approach by political parties is at its best mixed. But, at the same time it is difficult to classify either the Democrats or the Republicans as product-, sales- or market- oriented.

In Peru, a Latin American country, the Partido Aprista Peruano (APRA) comes closest to being market-oriented (Galindo, 2010). Its market-orientation was one of the reasons the APRA won the 2006 election. The Partido Nacionalista

Peruano (PNP) does not admit having gathered data on people’s expectations regarding proposed policies. Unlike the PNP, the U.N. does have the resources to carry out market intelligence but does not seem to be willing to use such resources to implement marketing techniques to gather information about what the voters need and want.

In East Asia, Taiwanese and Malaysian political parties were investigated. In

Taiwan, political parties are increasingly aware of political marketing. Fell and

Cheng (2010) argue that market-oriented party will generally defeat the product- oriented party and market-oriented party will generally defeat a sales-oriented party.

Fell and Cheng (2010) note the KMT and DPP have shifted between more sales- and market-oriented approaches. Overall, the trend towards more market-oriented parties has significant implications for the quality of Taiwan’s democracy.

In Malaysia, Badaruddin, et al. (2013) report that Malaysian politics before the 12th General Election in 2008 was more unpredictable and more challenging.

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According to Badaruddin, et al. (2013), the two main parties; the Barisan Nasional

(BN) and Pan Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) used Lees-Marshment model indirectly. Badaruddin, et al. (2013) argues that the reason for losing and winning elections is based on the party’s maximisation of its strengths, strategies and at the same time, the party’s ability to take every opportunity of the opponent’s weaknesses.

As for New Zealand, Lees-Marshment (2010) found that the major parties moved back and forth between sales- and market-orientations from one election to another. For example, parties were more sales-oriented in 2005 election; and in the

2008 election, they were characterised as market-oriented. It became clear for Lees-

Marshment that behaviour of political parties is unpredictable. Lees-Marshment

(2017) argues that the election in New Zealand in 2017 was very unpredictable, with change in the Parties Labour and Greens leadership before the campaign started, and the National won the most votes and seats but lost control of government due to the decision by minor party NZ First.

The framework provided by Lees-Marshment et al., (2010) characterised the political systems in the countries, but it ignores the cultural factor that is very important and plays big role in the behaviour of political parties.

Democracy, elections and political marketing in Arab countries are very new field. In first decade on the 21st century Arab countries encountered Arab Spring

(Arrabea Al Arabi). According to Al Otaibi (2008) election observers regularly regret the lack of literature on the elections phenomena in contemporary Arab political campaigns- especially considering the democratic development over the past ten years, and major movements led by Arab women and intellectuals. However, the following are studies conducted in some Arab countries focuses on political

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mobilisation after the Arab Spring (Arrabea Al Arabi) to uncover the role of social media in such event. Studies focused on the causes and the results of Arrabea Al

Arabi and the impact of social media on the uprising. For example, in Jordan, a study revealed that social media played big role in the mobilisation cross the Arab countries under what is called Arabia Al Arabi. Al Sharafat (2015) argues that there are reasons behind significant role of social media; first social media more flexible and easy to use than that traditional media. Second, the virtual societies are highly decentralised. Third, geography in social media does not play any role for the social media users. Users of social media can find people anytime. Fourth, social media is free and used in many purposes; entertainment communication etc. The study revealed that social media as one of political communication is the center of the political mobilisation in the Arab countries.

Similarly, a study revealed that the event of Arrabea Al Arabi influenced the increase of factors conductive to political participation in terms of the emergence of new social forces and movements such as youth movements and movements of tribal grouping in some regions and labour protest. Second, the events of Arrabea Al Arabi led to an increase in non-traditional activities through the escalation of protest behaviour and political demonstrations in the strikes and the weak role of traditional political parties. Third, The events of Arrabea Al Arabi have increased the degree of political interest in the general national issues in Jordan, especially at the level of the national political movements, although less so than the impact of the events of

Arrabea Al Arabi increased the class and regional demands. Finally, the events of

Arrabea Al Arabi have led to increased use of social media as one of the tools and requirements of political participation in Jordan (Dararkah, 2016). Carvill & Taylor

(2013) caution politicians to be prepared to response instantly to social media

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messages based on the idea that voters expect quick responses to their posts and their tendency to negatively react if replies are not timely.

In the KoB, a study was conducted by Al Otaibi (2008) revealed that the notable observation in the 2006 election in the KoB that the battle to be religious rather that patriarchal. Most voters voted according to their religious affiliations.

Women were caught between competing religious parties. Al Otaibi (2008) questions; how can women and culture redefine religious authority in Islam and on what grounds does a religious scholar decide for or against a woman, or an independent liberal organisation, holding high political office. Al Otaibi emphasises the role of the religious political society in hindering women to reach parliament.

3.14 Summary

In conclusion, political marketing is increasingly implemented in elections in many countries using commercial marketing strategies to win elections. In this chapter, political marketing as a social exchange, relationship theory and theory of stakeholders were discussed. Also, political product, and political communication were discussed to cover the aspects of political marketing.

Parliamentary election in the KoB is a very new event and this research attempts to investigate the behaviour of the female candidates who stood for the country’s 2014 parliamentary election. The next chapter explains the methodology that the research uses to collect and analyse data for the study.

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CHAPTER 4

METHODOLOGY

4.1 Introduction

This chapter discusses the research strategy and methodology. It applied procedures of the Grounded Theory (GT) to investigate the central phenomenon of political marketing strategies used in the 2014 Parliamentary Election in the Kingdom of

Bahrain (KoB). These were subsequently used to analyse the behaviour of female candidates and their relationship-based marketing approach with relevant stakeholders.

4.2 Research Strategy

Democracy and parliamentary elections are two new political practices in the KoB.

The Bahraini nation is an Islamic country with an Arab conservative and collectivist culture. This conservative Arab-Muslim culture represents an additional challenge for female candidates to stand for election. However, the female candidates utilise political marketing, a perspective of political science, to win the election. Only few research works exist on the strategies employed by female candidates in elections in the GCC. Thus, this study explores and explains the strategies employed by female candidates in the 2014 parliamentary election in the KoB.

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The strategy of the research draws a road map for collecting and analysing data for the study. Figure 4.1 below illustrates the strategy and method used for the research:

Qualitative Research

Exploratory Inductive

Grounded Theory

Data Triangulation

Knowledge, Interviews Documents Attitudes, Practices

Finding

Figure 4.1: Strategy and method of the Research

4.2.1 Qualitative Approach

The aim of a social study is to provide more understanding about the human behaviour in social contexts. Neuman (2006, p. 6) writes that a “social research involves thinking about questions about the social world and following a set of process to create new knowledge based on science”. Loseke (2013, p.3) defines social research as “the systemic and empirical exploration of human social life”. The social research explores the unknown of the lives of people in a scientific process, utilising the appropriate methods. Loseke (2013, p. 31) argues that social research is led by questions of who, what, where, how, when, and why about characteristics, causes, process, consequences, and meaning of social life.

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To achieve this goal, researchers need to think logically, analyse, compare and evaluate using methodological imagination (Loseke, 2013) and repeat steps again and again. Strauss and Corbin (1998, p. 3) define methods as “set of procedures and techniques for gathering and analysing data”.

Researchers in social studies utilise a qualitative, quantitative or mixed- method of both qualitative and quantitative approaches (Hoepfl, 1997). Researchers need to think about the appropriate methodology. Strauss and Corbin (1998, p.3) define methodology as “a way of thinking about and studying reality”. Methodology provides paradigm, approach(es), and instruments to construct the research. It differentiates procedures in data collection from one discipline to another and proposes methods to conduct a study.

Denzin and Lincoln (2005, p.3) state that:

qualitative research is a situated activity that locates the observer in the world. It consists of a set of interpretive, material practices that make the world visible. These practices transform the world. They turn the world into series of representations, including field notes, interviews, conversations, photographs, recordings and memos to the self. At this level, qualitative research involves an interpretive naturalistic approach to the world. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.

Social science such as politics, nursing, marketing and education are utilising the qualitative approach. Qualitative approach involves human feelings, emotions and interactions of individuals. Researchers in social studies need to be sensitive and creative to interpret verbal, images and movements of people. Hence, researchers of social studies utilise qualitative methods to study the phenomena in depth.

Researchers in social studies also need to compare between the attitudes of different groups of people, which need to apply a mixture of qualitative and quantitative

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approaches. Qualitative and quantitative approaches are utilised to achieve objectives of researches in different ways.

Qualitative researchers seek to understand phenomenon in context-specific settings, such as “real world setting where the researcher does not attempt to manipulate the phenomenon of interests” (Patton, 2001, p.39). To explore a phenomenon in a social context should be free of standardisation and centralisation to enable the researcher to analyse and interpret data from a real world based on

“what is going on”. According to Strauss and Corbin (1990, p. 17), qualitative research means “any kind of research that produces findings not arrived at by means of statistical procedures or other means of quantification”. Qualitative research does not deal with numbers and statistics, but it enjoys dealing with stories, interviews, themes and photos.

Trochim and Land (1982, p.1) argue that quantitative approach is “the glue that holds research project together. A design is used to structure the research, to show how all of the major parts of the research project – the samples or groups, measures, treatments or programmes and methods of assignment – work together to try to address the central research questions”. Quantitative research deals with hypothesis which needs to be confirmed or refuted. Hence, researchers need to define the variables to be measured. In quantitative research, variables must be measurable and numeric. Golafshani (2003) insists that quantitative research should be constructed using an instrument whose administration can be conducted in a standardised manner according to predetermined procedures.

In a mixed-method research that combines qualitative and quantitative approaches, researchers use different techniques to collect and analyse data. Johnson and Turner (2003) note the key principle of using a mixed-method approach is that

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the researchers use multiple strategies in data collection and analysis so that they reflect complementary strengths and non-overlapping weaknesses. A mixed methods study can provide insights not possible when only one approach, e.g. quantitative or qualitative is used to collect data. In a mixed methods approach, the qualitative data is used to support quantitative data.

4.2.2 Inductive Reasoning

This study generates theory from data. The study is thus, an inductive reasoning approach. Researchers in social study build and test their theories from two directions; inductive and deductive (Neuman 2006). Neuman (2006, p. 59) defines inductive direction as “an approach to developing or confirming a theory that begins with concrete empirical evidence and works toward more abstract concepts and theoretical relationships”. According to Creswell (2007, p. 23) “deductive approach starts with hypothesis to be confirmed or refute”. This study starts with no hypothesis or assumption. It explores the practice of the female candidates in election from scratch.

Inductive orientation is logical reasoning that generates a theory from data. In the inductive approach, researchers start from data (observation, interviews and documents) to build theories. The researcher in this study starts with data collection from interviews and documents. This research deals with mass data that need to be organised, categorised, analysed and interpreted in order to build a theory. It is a qualitative approach that enables the researcher to study the phenomenon in-depth.

The recent study began with data from the field related to the phenomenon under investigation to build a theory. Thus, this study took an inductive direction, which directed the researcher to collect data from the field, analyse and construct a theory

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to provide more understanding of human behaviour in the context of political marketing in KoB.

According to Neuman (2006), one of the qualitative research approaches that use inductive logic is the Grounded Theory (GT), which is increasingly used in social research. Grounded Theory is a type of inductive social theory often used in qualitative research to build an abstract theory, often by making comparisons of empirical observations.

4.2.3 Exploratory Research

Research questions and objectives are used to formulate the goals and objectives of a research. The main aim of this study is to investigate the strategies used by female candidates in the 2014 Parliamentary Election in the KoB. The researcher has knowledge of the phenomenon under investigation, but parliamentary election is a new event in the KoB.

Meanwhile since the behaviour of female candidates in an election needs more explanation; this study uses exploratory and explanatory research. Neuman

(2006, p. 33) argues that exploratory research is one “in which the primary purpose is to examine a less-understood issue or phenomenon to develop preliminary ideas and move towards refining research question by focusing on what question”.

4.3 Grounded Theory

This study applies Grounded Theory that allows the construction of a theory from data. The strategy was appropriate for this study for several reasons. First, the parliamentary election is a very new practice in the KoB. Second, there are few researches, if there is any that conducted an investigation on the phenomenon of

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political marketing in the KoB. Third, based on the second reason, there were no hypotheses to be tested or assumptions to be confirmed or refuted. Fourth, this study constructs a theory from data. Thus, Grounded Theory is an appropriate strategy to build a theory on the behaviour of female candidates in election. The following section discusses Grounded Theory, by presenting an overview and subsequently, discussing its application and procedure in this study.

Grounded Theory was introduced by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss

(1967) and is widely used in qualitative research. Strauss and Corbin (1990, p. 24) define Grounded Theory as “a qualitative research method that uses [a] systemic set of procedures to develop an inductively derived theory about a phenomenon”.

Grounded Theory aims to generate a theory from data. The main objective of

Grounded Theory is to build a theory rather than to test concepts and ideas. Strauss and Corbin (1990, p. 23) argue that Grounded Theory is “one that is inductively derived from the phenomenon it represents. It is discovered, developed and provisionally verified through systemic data collection and analysis of data pertaining to that phenomenon. Therefore, data collection, analysis and theory stand in reciprocal relationship to one another”. Martin and Turner (1986, p.141) support the view point of Corbin to define Grounded Theory as “an inductive, theory discovery methodology that allows the researcher to develop a theoretical account of the general features of a topic while simultaneously grounding the account in empirical observations or data. The Grounded Theory then is an inductive, rigorous and systemic method of collecting and analysing data”. It gives researchers wider margins of interpretation from rich data to construct a theory.

The grounded theory was introduced in the 1960s after Barney Glaser and

Anselm Strauss’ sociological research in medical sociology. The approach of GT

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was published and introduced in 1967 in the book: “The Discovery of Grounded

Theory”. The strategy began from data, based on the research interaction with changes of respondents and environment. Neuman (2006, p. 157) argues that

Grounded Theory enables researchers to develop theory during data collection process.

4.4 Procedure of the Grounded Theory in this Study

The research followed the procedure of Grounded Theory illustrated in Figure 4.2 below. The process is subsequently discussed.

Identifying population and sample of the study

Data Collection (Interviews, Documents)

Open Coding Constant Comparison

Axial Coding Identifying Memo Categories

Saturation Stage Draw a scenario for the Behavior

Theoretical Coding Memo

Figure 4.2: Grounded Theory procedure of the study Source: Framework of Grounded Theory adapted from Jones and Alony, 2011

4.4.1 Population of the Study

In the 2014 Parliamentary Election in Bahrain, 22 female candidates stood for election. This represents the population of the study, comprising all female candidates who contested in the 2014 Parliamentary Election in the Constituencies of the Governorates of the KoB.

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Table 4.1 below presents the Governorate, Constituencies and the number of candidates in each constituency. Out of the total of 22 female candidates that contested in the 2014 Parliamentary Election in Bahrain, only six qualified for elections into the second round.

Table 4.1 Population of the Study Governorates Constituency No. of Female Candidates Capital (Asemah) 2 1 5 2 6 1 7 1 10 3 Muharraq 4 1 Northern (Shamalyeh) 1 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 8 1 10 1 11 1 Southern (Janubeyah) 1 1 2 1 5 1 6 2 8 1 Total 22

Source: Directorate of Election and Referendum (DER, 2014)

Three of the six female candidates who contested during the second round won their seats and were elected as members of parliament as shown in Figure 4.3 below.

Figure 4.3: Female candidates’ results in 1st and 2nd round of parliamentary election Source: Directorate of Election and Referendum, 2014 116

In the 2014 Parliamentary Election in the KoB, 22 female candidates stood for the elections. The 22 female candidates represented all the Governorates of the

KoB (Figure 4.4).

Figure 4.4: Female candidates and governorates Source: Directorate of Election and Referendum, 2014

4.4.2 Sample of the Study

Ten female candidates from the population comprising 22 female candidates were selected as the sample population for this study. This represents 45.45% of the population of the study.

Purposive sampling technique was used to select the informants based on phases of the election; that is, candidates who contested in the first and second rounds; candidates who won parliamentary seats; and informants’ demography in terms of different governorates and constituencies.

The sample of the study (i.e. ten informants) was selected for several reasons.

First, six of the ten informants stood for the second round in 2014 parliamentary election. Three out of these six informants won their seats in parliament while three out of the six did not win in the second round. The other four informants out of ten 117

informations sampled for the study did not proceed to the second round of the election. This provided variety in the informants’ experience in the election to enrich the study. Secondly, the informants’ demography is diverse, which represents political product attributes of each female candidate. Finally, each group of the informants represented different Governorates and Constituencies.

Table 4.2 below illustrates the profile of the study sample; 60% of the female candidates were aged between 30-40 years old; 10% were between 40-50 years old and 30% were above 50 years old. Table 4.2 also showed that all the female candidates work in public, private sectors or run their own businesses. Data also showed that all the female candidates hold degrees; four (40%) hold a Bachelor’s

Degree; five (50%) hold Master Degree; and one (10%) holds a PhD degree.

Table 4.2: Profile of the sample of the study S/N Code Date of Occupation Qualification Marital No. of Birth Status Children 1 C1 1979 Works Master Unmarried 0 2 C2 1979 Works Master Married 1 3 C3 1983 Works Master Married 3 4 C4 1961 Works Master Married 1 5 C5 1980 Works Bachelor’s Married Degree 6 C6 1983 Works Bachelor’s Married 3 Degree 7 C7 1982 Works Bachelor’s Married 2 Degree 8 C8 1969 Works Bachelor’s Married Degree 9 C9 1960 Works PhD Married 10 C10 1959 Works Master Married

The informants contested for the Parliamentary Election in 2014. Some of them had experience in the previous parliamentary election as contestants. Data showed that three informants contested previous parliamentary elections. However, six out of the ten informants contested the parliamentary election for the first time.

The information are contained in Table 4.3 below.

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Table 4.3: Informants’ Political Participations S/N Code Political Govern. Const. Times of Competitors Election Society Standing for Male female 1st Round Result 2nd Round Result Elections

1 C1 Independent Muharraq 4 1 6 0 887(14.92%) Lost 0 0 2 C2 Independent Northern (Shamalyeh) 6 1 7 0 718(37.26%) 762(61.3%) W 3 C3 Independent Northern (Shamalyeh) 7 1 4 0 1092(24.64%) 1373(39.6%) L 4 C4 Independent Southern (Janubeyah) 5 2 5 0 2095(28.86%) 3217(47.86%) L 5 C5 Independent Northern (Shamalyeh) 12 2 4 0 963(46.5%) 1158(71.26%) W 6 C6 Independent Southern (Janubeyah) 2 1 7 0 1012(18.28%) Lost 0 0

119 7 C7 Independent Northern (Shamalyeh) 1 1 6 0 183(25.96%) 276(51.11%) W

8 C8 Independent Capital (Asemah) 5 1 7 1 523(22.92%) 836(44.4%) L 9 C9 Independent Capital (Asemah) 10 1 12 2 267(5.81%) Lost 0 0 10 C10 NUA Northern (Shamalyeh) 10 2 6 0 798(10.75%) Lost 0 0

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4.4.3 Ethical Considerations

Interviews were held with ten informants selected as sample for the study. The researcher used a protocol for the interviews. Researchers need to prepare themselves and consider ethical concerns as they design a study so that sound ethical practice is built into the study design (Neuman, 2006, p. 129).

Relying on Kvale (1996), informed process consent, confidentiality and emotional protection were the ethical issues considered in this study. Prior to the interview, the researcher informed the participants about the objectives and purpose of the interviews and study as suggested in Bogdan and Biklen (2003) and Kvale

(1996). Thus, each of the informants was contacted on phone by the researcher to introduce himself and seek their involvement in the study. Letters were sent to each informant by electronic mail. The letters contained an introduction on the study, its objectives and the purpose of the interview. The letters also provided information on

USM and the School of Distance Education where the researcher is undertaking this research, as well as the names of the supervisor and researcher and their contact numbers for further inquiries (Appendix A). Similarly, the informants received the name card of the researcher which included information on USM, the School of

Distance Education as well as the names and contact numbers of the researcher and supervisor.

According to Bogdan and Biklen (2003) and Fraenkel (1990), the confidentiality of informants should be protected. In this study, the informants were given codes to hide their identities. This action protected the informants from any embarrassment or harm (Bogdan & Biklen, 2003). The researcher kept the informants’ identities strictly confidential to get their permission to conduct and record the interviews.

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Bogdan and Biklen (2003) argue that a researcher must be aware of sensitivity issues that should be avoided during an interview. Thus, the researcher avoided asking the informants questions related to their personal lives, income or any other questions that might cause them any emotional distress.

4.4.4 Data Collection

Data for this study was collected from two main sources; interviews and documents.

The following illustrated the procedures.

4.4.4(a) Interviews

There are basically three types of interviews; unstructured interviews, semi- structured interviews and structured interviews (Corbin & Strauss, 2015, p.37). This study uses semi-structured interviews to enable the researcher to maintain some consistency over the concepts that are covered in each interview (Corbin & Strauss,

2015, p. 39). To enable the informants to prepare for the interviews, subject areas and topics for the interviews were sent to them one week in advance. According to

Corbin and Strauss (2015, p. 40) “some topics generate a lot of emotions and a participant has to retreat into silence for a moment to gain composure”. Thus, during the interviews the researcher let the informants talk freely without any influence to direct the answers of the informants.

Questions and discussions of the interviews covered all the topics of the phenomenon under investigation. At the end of each interview, the informants were asked to add anything they think were relevant to the subject.

Place, date and time of the interviews were held based on the informants’ preferences. The interviews were conducted between July 15, 2015 and March 4,

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2016. Interviews were held with the informants in Arabic to ensure that the concepts, ideas and themes were understood. The interviews in Arabic were translated by the researcher and verified by an expert who is proficient in both Arabic and English languages. The letter verifying the accuracy of the translations is attached as

Appendix L.

Neuman (2006, p. 306) notes “interviews proceed through three stages; introduction, asking questions and exit”. The interviews for this study proceed through the same stages. The first stage was introduction. This included making the interview friendly and using a conversation form rather than questioning. Hence, it is favourable to start with asking about the families of the informants. The introduction also included providing informants with information about why they were selected for the study. The second stage is entering the interviews. In this stage questions were asked, and the informants were given the freedom and time to answer and elaborate their points. Interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee is the main approach through which the informants will become agreeable to give more details. The last stage is exit. In this stage the interviewer asked the informants to add any comments that would be useful for the study like: women in politics, election and development of the female performance. The interviews were ended with thanks and appreciation for the informants’ willingness to participate in this study.

Each interview was digitally recorded and transcribed immediately afterwards. According to Charmaz (2014, p. 68) “using recorder allows you to give full attention to your research participant, with steady eye contact, and to obtain detailed data”. Transcribing was word-by-word and was checked to ensure that no word was omitted. During and after each interview, the researcher took notes,

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including the body language and reaction of the informants. The notes were summarised and converted into memos.

4.4.4(a) (i) Topics of the Interviews

The research utilises semi-structured interviews, which took a discussion approach to allow the informants to elaborate on topics sent to them earlier as follows:

- definition of political marketing

- process of the political marketing pre, during and after the election

- communication tools that were used to communicate voters

- basis of market segmentation

- targeting the desired voters

- supporters of the informants

- strategies in branding

- strategies in the first round of election

- strategies in the second round of election

- difficulties face by informants during campaigns

- role of culture on the informants’ campaigns

4.4.4(b) Identifying Documents

People create documents for specific purposes and they do so within social, economic, historical, cultural and situational contexts (Charmaz, 2015, p. 46). These documents play big roles in clarifying scenes. Documents support other data as it is often used in combination with other qualitative research methods as a means of triangulation (Denzin, 1970, p. 291). Corbin and Strauss (2015, p. 36) note that “it is important for a researcher to initiate a research journal or diary in which he or she

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keeps a record of all the activities present and future that transpire during the research process”. Documents can be videos, drawings, diaries, group meetings, memories, newspapers, historical documents and biographies (Corbin & Strauss,

2015, p. 37). Female candidates’ documents come from two sources; newspapers and social media. Documents on the main topics were presented by the female candidates in two types of documents. These were collected and read carefully.

The data for the study were collected from two sources; newspapers and social media. Five local newspapers covered the events of the election; Al Watan, Al

Wasat, Akhbar Al Khaleej, Al Ayam and Al Belad. Two of the five local newspapers were selected as secondary sources of data; Akhbar Al Khaleej (The Gulf News)

(http://www.akhbar-alkhaleej.com) and Al Ayam (The Days)

(http://www.alayam.com/epaper) were selected for several reasons. First, both are the oldest newspapers in Bahrain. Secondly, the two newspapers targeted segments of readers; Al Ayam is more popular and targeted all newspaper readers, Akhbar Al

Khaleej targeted educated people. Finally, both newspapers covered the events before, during and after the parliamentary election. Also, other newspapers such as

Al Watan (http://www.alwatannews.net), Al Wasat

(http://www.alwasatnews.com/news/527797.html) and Ashsharq Al Awsat

(http://archive.aawsat.com) were scanned.

The researcher scanned all the daily newspapers in general and Akhabr Al

Khaleej and Al Ayam in specific between 1st September and 31st December 2014. The data revealed that there were 1,190 items related to the Parliamentary Election in

Akhabr Al Khaleej and Al Ayam. The data were classified into categories as illustrated in Table 4.4 (overleaf), thus: caricature (cartoon drawings presenting viewpoints of the caricaturists about parliamentary election), news (all items related

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to the news published by candidates about their social and election campaign activities), column (all columns written by candidates), posters (all advertisements, images, slogans of candidates related to the parliamentary elections), announcement

(all messages and announcement sent by candidates to voters) and media coverage

(all items that are related to the coverage conducted by the newspaper about the candidates) (Table 4.4).

Table 4.4: Items related to parliamentary election in Akhbar Al Khaleej and Al Ayam Item Caricature News Column Poster Announcement Media Total of Coverage Items No. 17 51 60 240 347 475 1190

4.5 Validity and Reliability

This study reflects the behaviour of female candidates in the 2014 Parliamentary

Election in the KoB. According to Neuman (2006, p. 192), reliability and validity are central issues in all measurements. Both concern connecting measures to construct.

Reliability means dependability or consistency (Neuman 2006). Validity is used to mean “true” or “correct”. To increase the validity, the researcher used several tactics.

First, the researcher used triangulation strategy which is discussed in the next section. The triangulation was conducted as recommended by Strauss and Corbin

(1998) and Yin (2003). Secondly, the researcher made appropriate tabulations as suggested by Silverman (2005).

4.5.1 Triangulation Strategy

Neuman (2006) argues that surveyors and sailors measure distance between objects by making observation from multiple positions. This process is called triangulation”.

Neuman (2006) defines triangulation as “the idea that looking at something from multiple points of view improves accuracy”. This study gathered data from different

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sources. The primary sources of data were from interviews. Data from documents were used to support the interviews. Dealing with different sources without considering validity may bias the research. Thus, it is important to ensure that the process of collecting and analysing data increased validity to ensure the quality of research. The current study uses triangulation as a strategy to deal with data from the two sources.

As stated earlier, the study deals with rich data. Some of the data were obtained from interviews while others came from images, slogans and banners gathered from the female candidates’ accounts on social media, magazines, newspapers and other written sources. Therefore, the data can be classified in two categories; interviews and documents. Triangulation is an appropriate strategy to analyse these data from two different sources. Yeasmin and Rahman (2012) explain that triangulation is a process of verification that increases validity. It incorporates several viewpoints and methods. In the social sciences, it is the combination of two or more theories, data sources, methods or investigators in one study of a single phenomenon to converge on a single construct and can be employed in both quantitative and qualitative.

Denzin (1970) distinguishes between four types of triangulation in research methods and design; Data triangulation, Investigation triangulation, Theoretical triangulation, Methodological triangulation. Denzin (1978) identifies five types of triangulation; investigator triangulation, methodological triangulation, data triangulation, analysis triangulation and theoretical triangulation.

Notably, using varieties of the sources of data confirms validity and reliability of the study. Coding and categorising data from different sources increases validity and reliability. Triangulation is a method used by qualitative researchers to

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increase validity in their studies by analysing rich data from different sources. The study deals with data from different sources – interviews and documents. Interviews provide words, emotions and body language. On the other side, there were documents, which required analysis and interpretation. The documents contained messages from the female candidates for their audiences. These documents included the candidates’ messages on their social media accounts, posters, interviews in newspaper and magazines. Hence, data triangulation was an appropriate strategy to validate and confirm the reliability of data (Figure 4.5).

Researcher

Political Marketing

Interviews Documents

Figure 4.5: Triangulation strategy of the study

4.6 Pre-Analysis Process

Analysis in research on Grounded Theory starts as soon as the first bit of data is collected (Corbin & Strauss, 1990). Data from substantive area can be numbers, photographs, images, and/or slogans. Data collected from documents were rich. Dey

(1999) mentions that the researcher usually starts with a general subject or problem conceived only in terms of a general disciplinary perspective.

Before conducting the coding for all the informants, coding was conducted with two informants. The two informants represent two cases; the first case was with 127

an informant who stood for election but could not stand for the second round and left the competition from the first round. The second case was an informant who stood for election, went through the second round and won the election. Interviews of the two informants were coded and analysed.

Analysing data from the two informants followed the GT procedure. Data was first subjected to open coding. Similarities and differences emerged from ideas from the informants during open coding. Then the codes were classified, and each group was assigned a name. Constant comparison was conducted to identify the similarities and differences. The comparison was held to identify the similarities and differences in strategies and actions of the two informants.

Some categories emerged while analysing the two cases from the interviews with informants. The two informants’ concerns were; first “appearance of the informants in media and public”. Appearance of a candidate is the most important stage of introducing the candidate to voters. Informant C2 could deal with her appearance by using a strategy that allowed her to flood the market with her images, news and announcements. She used all available media to introduce herself to the electorate. Also, she used three of the most popular newspapers to extend her political product. Meanwhile, Informant C1 underestimated the importance of social media. She did not use all available social media to expand her political product. She was satisfied with using Instagram where she made a few posts. Informant C1 stated in many parts of her interview that she lacked appearance. Secondly, both informants were supported by individuals and institutions, including the Supreme Council for

Women (SCW).

The two cases that the researcher used to conduct pre-analysis gave some ideas about the potential categories that might emerge in the rest of the interviews.

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However, emerging categories such as “appearance” needed more investigation. The researcher needed to identify more categories and themes during the subsequent interviews. But, the categories which emerged in the interviews with the two cases provided more insight into the categories that may emerge in the main study.

4.7 Writing Memos

Memos enable the researcher to develop the codes and categories. According to

Charmaz (2014, p. 162), memo-writing “is the pivotal intermediate step between data collection and writing drafts of paper. Memo-writing constitutes a crucial method in grounded theory because it prompts you to analyse your data and codes early in the research process”. Schatzman and Strauss (1973, p. 9) state that “memos and diagrams are more than just repositories of analysis. When researchers write memos, they are doing analysis. They are dialoguing with data and moving the analysis further”.

Memos were written during all steps of coding to identify the major codes and categories. Hence, the memos are illustrated after each process of coding to present the development of the categories (Appendix B).

4.8 Analysing data for the main study

Data analysis in Grounded Theory refers to searching out concepts, themes, terms behind the incidents, categorising them and then linking the categories to construct a theory. Coding is “the process of breaking down, conceptualising, and reassembling data” (Corbin & Strauss 1990). Grounded Theory data analysis contains three cummulative coding; open coding for concepts, ideas, terms and categories; axial coding to put categories back in new ways after open coding; and selective coding, to

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form theory. These operations require constant comparison. Microsoft Excel was used in the coding process. However, using Microsoft Excel is exhausting and consuming time; it also has its advantages. First, it enables the researcher to feel the statements of informants. Reading and re-reading transcription on spreadsheets gave more insights to understand each sentence of the transcription.

Secondly, it enables the researcher to see the concepts and ideas behind the codes. Finally, and most important is that it allows the generation of codes for GT based on data. Thus, in the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, the data led the researcher to come up with categories. In the application, the researcher is led by data which is the main purpose of GT. In the mechanisms in other applications, the researcher leads the data, and this biases the data and increases subjectivity.

4.8.1 Open coding

The first step in the coding process was open coding. According to Glaser (1978) coding is “running the data open”. Strauss and Corbin (1990, p. 62; 1998, p. 102) characterises open coding as the process when “the data are broken down into discrete parts, closely examined, compared for similarities and differences and questions are asked about the phenomenon reflected in the data”. The researcher in this step breaks the transcription of the interviews into lines. The lines of each transcription were assigned serial numbers to facilitate tracing statements of informants. Each line contained ideas, terms, themes, concepts and events by analysing the text line-by-line, which means naming each line of a written data

(Glaser, 1978). The transcription of each informant was subjected to open coding, separately to enable the coding to lead to the emergence of new ideas in the next

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transcription. Each line of the transcription was labeled with its respective abstract representation which can be conceptual (Appendix C).

The next step was putting all transcriptions on one sheet to sort them. After the open coding process, the codes were sorted in alphabetical order. Sorting codes reassemble codes in similar categories that held the same concept. Each one of these codes represented similar conceptual items (Appendix D).

The total number of generated codes after open-coding was 819 codes, no matter how many times they appeared in each transcription. The codes generated from the open coding are listed in Appendix E. The list of codes presented the code numbers and names.

4.8.2 Constant Comparison

The emergent codes from the open-coding process present different ideas, concepts, actions, strategies in different directions of the informants’ political marketing strategies. To identify similarities and differences in the strategies of the informants, the researcher conducted constant comparison. Corbin and Strauss (2015, p. 85) define constant comparison as “the analytical process of comparing different pieces of data against each other for similarities”.

After the process of open coding, the comparison was conducted to identify similarities and differences in initial data. To do so, similar concepts, terms and ideas were classified and assigned a name. The location of each idea and concept was also identified, regardless of the number of times they appeared in each transcription.

Also, naming the codes and their locations facilitated subsequent categorisation of coding (See Table 4.5 overleaf).

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Table 4.5 Code names and code locations. Code Name Code Location Abilities C7 C6 Abuse C5 C6 Accepting women in parliament C4 Achieve her objectives C8 C6 Activate laws C8 C10 Activities C8 C4 Advantage of Al Wefaq boycott C2 Advantage of early announcement C3 Advantages C3 C9 Advantages of media C6 Advantages of training courses C7 Advertisement C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C6 C3

The process of open coding identifies similarity and differences in actions and strategies of the informants during the election campaigns. Many questions arose after the comparison as follows:

1. Why do the informants believe that political marketing is about “sales skills”?

2. If the informants did not represent ideology as political product, what then

did they use as political product in their campaigns?

3. Which constituencies were dominated by tribalism and masculinity?

4. Which of the informants avoided uncertainty?

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5. Why do most of the informants use Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh to

communicate to their voters?

6. What were the informants’ strategies to challenge the dominance of Al Wefaq

Islamic Society?

7. What was the role of the supporters in the informants’ campaigns?

8. Where did masculinity, tribalism and collectivism appear?

9. Why did the informants segment their voters on demographic basis?

10. Why are all the informants using their relationships to conduct their election

campaigns?

To answer these questions, the researcher reviewed the transcriptions to find some hints to uncover the means behind these actions and strategies. The researcher found that the election process provided more explanations on the informants’ strategies because some strategies were used before, some were used during, and others were used in the second round of election. Hence, the researcher classified the codes in categories based on the time of the process of election.

The study conducted interviews to explore the political marketing strategies used by informants. To cover the scene from different angle, the study implemented triangulation strategy. Analysing documents enables the researcher to cover the scene from another side. Hence, newspapers, social media and posters were analysed to observe the informants’ apparent to voters. Slogans, advertisements, images were coded and categorised and given names.

Items that related to the election published in newspapers were coded and classified. Coding the newspapers’ items was held side-by-side to coding the interviews. Analysing documents was to confirm the codes emerged from the

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interviews. Documents show that almost all of the informants did not give enough attention to media to send their messages, announcements, images and slogans.

4.8.3 Categorising and Axial Coding

The researcher needed to go forward and backward in the data from the transcription to codes that were generated (Charmaz, 2014). According to Charmaz (2015) axial coding, which is related to categories, to subcategories, specifies the properties and dimensions of category, and reassembled the data you have fractured during the initial coding to give coherence to the emerging analysis. De Vos et al. (2005, p. 348) argue that axial coding is “a set of procedures whereby data are put back together in new way after open coding, by making connections between categories”. Glaser and

Strauss (1967, p. 36) defines a property as “conceptual aspect or element of a category. Property is related to the main ideas, themes or concern that can be conceptualised”. Strauss (1987, p. 21) notes that property is “the most concrete feature of something (idea, event, activity, relation) that can be conceptualised”.

Deciding on the name for a category requires some imagination and sensitivity to the process or phenomenon being categorised. Most important, the chosen name must be something memorable, something that promotes thoughtful analysis, and something from which the researcher may draw theoretical inspiration

(Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Knowledge and experience of the researcher is very important to find the categories that fit to the reality and give logical explanations on the relationships between categories.

To do this task, first, the researcher laid out the dimensions of each category.

Open coding revealed the various dimensions of the categories. These include: action, strategies, behaviour and reaction. Political marketing is an interaction

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between the informants and their stakeholders in general, and voters. Putting the time line of the election campaigns into consideration provided explanations on the informants’ strategies and actions.

Categories and sub-categories were identified. The categories represent three times of female candidates’ campaigns; before, during and after the election. The period “before election” shows the process of preparation by the informants for election. The period “during election” involves two stages of strategies in the election; during the first and second round of elections. “After the election” refers to the informants’ behaviour after the polls.

Digging data from interviews, documents and memos showed the various strategies used by the female candidates during election campaigns. The strategies were deployed: before, during and after election. These three periods of the election are discussed in this findings chapter across categories and sub-categories. The categories and sub-categories were generated as follows:

1. What is political marketing?

2. Informants before election

2.1 Empowering Programme

2.2 Political Environment

2.2.1 Boycott of the Political Societies

2.2.2 Boycott of the voters

2.2.3 Cancelation of Wusta Governorate

2.2.4 Al Wefaq Domination

2.3 Cultural Factor

2.3.1 Masculinity

2.3.2 Tribalism

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2.3.3 Uncertainty Avoidance

2.3.4 Collectivism

2.3.5 Welayat Al Maraa’ (the Rule of Women)

2.3.6 Bahraini Culture

2.4 Designing Political Product

2.4.1 Electoral Programme

2.4.2 Slogans

2.4.3 Advertisements, Posters, Banners and Brochures

2.4.4 Appearance of the Informants

2.5 Market Intelligence

2.5.1 Survey

2.5.2 Data collected by relatives and relations

2.5.3 Official statistics

2.5.4 Observing marketplace

2.5.5 Data from Media

2.6 Strategic Marketing

2.6.1 Market Segmentation

2.6.1.1 Demographic basis Segmentation

2.6.1.2 Political Orientation Segmentation

2.6.1.3 Segmentation based on Media Followers

2.6.1.4 Niche Market

2.7 The Informants during the Election

2.7.1 The Informants activated their relationships

2.7.1.1 Family

2.7.1.2 Relatives

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2.7.1.3 Social figures

2.7.1.4 Friends

2.7.1.5 Media

2.7.1.6 Politicians

2.7.2 The Informants started their election campaigns

2.7.2.1 Targeting the required markets

2.7.2.1 Targeting the young voters

2.7.2.2 Targeting the old voters

2.7.2.3 Targeting male voters

2.7.2.4 Targeting women voters

2.7.2.5 Targeting the voters who follow social media

2.7.2.6 Targeting loyal conservative voters

2.7.2.7 Targeting social figures

2.7.2.8 Niche Markets

2.7.2.9 Mass market

2.7.3 Political Communication

2.7.3.1 Interactive Communication

2.7.3.1.1 Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh (Tents)

2.7.3.1.2 Meeting voters

2.7.3.1.3 Visiting male communities (Majlis)

2.7.3.2 One-way Communication

2.7.3.2.1 Posters and Banners

2.7.3.2.2 Newspaper

2.7.3.2.3 Word of mouth

2.7.3.2.4 SMS

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2.7.3.3 Social media

2.7.3.3.1 Instagram

2.7.3.3.2 Twitter

2.7.3.3.3 WhatsApp

2.7.3.3.4 Facebook

2.7.3.3.5 YouTube

2.7.3.3.6 Website

2.7.4 Branding

2.7.4.1 Using brand of the informants’ professions

2.7.4.1 Using attributes of femininity as brand

2.7.4.2 Using the family name as brand

2.7.4.3 Using brand of the informants’ own business

2.7.5 Introducing the political product

2.7.5.1 Appearance of the Informants

2.8 Supporters of the Informants

2.8.1 Supreme Council- the Strategic Partner

2.8.2 Support from families

2.8.3 Support of social figures

2.8.4 Support of politicians

2.8.5 Support of experts and professional

2.8.6 Support of friends

2.8.7 Support media

2. 9 The polling day

2.9.1 End of the first round of election

2.10 Second round of election

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2.10.1 Strategies on the informants

2.10.1.1 Alliance strategy

2.10.1.2 Increasing their appearance

2.10.1.3 Targeting the voters who believe in women

2.10.1.4 Targeting voters through media

2.11 After election

2.11.1 Informants who could not win in first round

2.11.2 Informants who lost in second round

2.12 Election ethics

2.12 End of 2014 parliamentary election

4.8.4 Theoretical Saturation

Saturation is “when no new categories or relevant themes are emerging” (Corbin &

Strauss 2015, p. 139). After identifying the categories and sub-categories, the researcher found no new emerging ideas, concepts, terms or themes. Moreover, the researcher investigates the themes in depth to ensure that there were explanations for each of the emerged categories. The explanations and relations of the categories are discussed in Chapter 6.

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4.8.5 Theoretical Coding

The core category that emerged during coding as shown in Figure 4.6 below represented the main concern in the transcriptions.

TIME

Before Election During Election After Election

Empowering Skills Activate relation Deliver Product (Training) networks Establish/strengthen More Apparent relations Alliances Strengthen relation Support Networks Design product Communication Communication

Figure 4.6: Informants’ model of political marketing in the 2014 parliamentary election

The informants relied heavily on the relation networks they built. The following briefly highlights the relationship-oriented model used by the female candidates. The model is discussed in detail in Chapter 6.

4.9 The Story Line

The data collected was used to construct a Grounded Theory. The pattern is illustrated in Figure 4.6. The scenario of the behaviour of the informants before, during and after the parliamentary election is briefly discussed. The story line is discussed in detail in Chapter 6.

Before the election, the informants enrolled in empowering programmes to improve their knowledge and skills to stand for the election. The empowering

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workshops and courses were mostly organised by the Supreme Council for Women

(SCW), which is a strategic partner of the female candidates.

The core process in the informants’ campaign is building relation networks.

The informants’ relationships with stakeholders allowed them to present their product, attract and motivate voters. Before election, all female candidates designed their political products. Most informants did not appear frequently in the media and public glare because of internal and external factors. To target voters, the informants first segmented the voters. Most of the informants segmented voters on demographic basis. Targeting strategy was based on the favourite media to voters; newspapers and social media. For example, female candidates targeted young voters through social media, whereas they targeted old voters through newspapers and electoral tents.

During the first round of election, the informants relied on their networks of relations to motivate voters. Most of the informants were supported by their families, relatives and friends using word-of-mouth. The informants also invited social figures

(religious men, columnists, writers, and specialists) based on their relationships with them to give speeches in the female candidates’ electoral tent. Inviting social figures and politicians served many functions, including: recommendations of the characters, word-of-mouth and giving speeches. Furthermore, the informants conducted visits to male gatherings (male Majlis). Supporting the informants required good relationship.

The informants used communication tools such as: interviews, speeches, meeting in sport clubs, tents, male and female Majlis, telephone and social media, to reach voters. In the first round of election, most of the informants did not mention the alliance strategy they adopted. Most informants stated that they used the alliance strategy when they contested the second round of election.

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The informants who contested for the second round used the alliance strategy.

The candidates who lost the election accepted to come into alliance with the informants based on existing relationships with the informants. The aim of the alliance is to motivate the voters of the candidates who did not win in the first round to vote for the candidates who qualified and were contesting in the second round.

Hence, the relationship between the female candidates who lost out in the first round and those who qualified into the second round played a big role in the alliances. The informants also increased their apparent in public and in the media. The informants in the second round targeted the voters, and candidates who lost in the first round to motivate their voters to vote for the female candidates in their constituencies.

Most of the informants who did not win or contest for elections in the second round halted their activities on social media. However, the informants who qualified and contested for the second round used additional strategies that were not used in the first round. One of the informants who stood for the second round limited her activities to parliament works, with no activities in the media. Two informants continued their apparent on social media and social activities. They appeared in meetings with officials, wrote newspaper columns and participated in the works of parliament and appeared on social media. The other two informants, who won the election, were still active. They also extended their relations, which strengthened their brand and enabled the voters to experience the quality of their products.

In sum, the female candidates in the 2014 parliamentary election in Bahrain were relationship-oriented. They relied on their relations in the political marketing process. This orientation was clear from the first round of election. It was clearer in the second round where they created alliances with other candidates and political societies.

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4.10 Evaluation of the informants’ political marketing strategies

To achieve the third objective of the study, that is, ‘evaluating the political marketing strategies of the informants’ the study used the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SOWT) strategy. Analysis of the informants’ strategies revealed the existence of some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the informants’ strategies. SOWT strategy used to evaluate the informants political marketing is discussed in chapter 7 in detail.

However, though the SWOT strategy was used to evaluate the marketing strategies of the informants, it could not indicate that a certain strategy was more successful than the other. It could also not prove that other elements (e.g. voters, competitors, other stakeholders, etc) were involved in guaranteeing the success of the informants at polls leading to their election as members of parliament or their loss, and inability to become parliamentarians.

4.11 Summary

The aim of this study is to explore the behaviour of female candidates in the 2014

Parliamentary election in the KoB. Events during elections are new to the people of the KoB. The culture of Bahrain is Arab-Islamic and collective tribalism and is influenced by behaviour of decision-makers. To investigate the behaviour of female candidates in the 2014 Bahrain Parliamentary Election, the study utilised Grounded

Theory.

So far, the chapter discussed how the process of Grounded Theory was implemented in this study. It discussed open, axial and theoretical coding that was utilised to generate categories. Open coding was the first step where the researcher broke the data into lines to identify the themes, ideas and concepts. Axial coding was conducted to identify the codes that were generated from open coding and classify them in categories. Memos were written during every step of the coding. Then, the

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researcher categorised the pattern to explore the behaviour of the female candidates before, during and after the election.

In Chapters 5 and 6, the findings of the study are discussed. Tables and charts are used to present the categories, sub-categories, themes and concepts that emerged from the coding process using Grounded Theory. Additionally, quotes from informants to ensure actuality of findings.

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CHAPTER 5

FINDINGS

5.0 Introduction

This chapter illustrates the process of the parliamentary election in the KoB in 2014.

The chapter also discusses the political environment and cultural factor. These two factors played a role in the informants’ election campaigns.

5.1 Who has the Right to Stand for Parliamentary Election?

The Directorate of Election and Referendum (DER, 2104) lists the categories of candidates that are eligible to run for the Council of Representatives Elections

(Appendix F). In the parliamentary election in 2014, the Kingdom of Bahrain was divided into four governorates. Each governorate is divided into constituencies. The constituencies contain group of blocks divided based on the size and population and information on governorates and constituencies (Appendix G).

Data show that 266 parliamentary candidates stood for elections in 2014; 244 male candidates (91.73 %) and 22 female candidates (8.27%). In the Capital

(Asemah) Governorate, eight female candidates stood against 55 male candidates. In

Muharraq Governorate, only one female candidate stood for election, whereas there were 59 male counterparts.

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In Shamalyeh, seven female candidates stood against 73 male competitors. In

Janubeyah, six female candidates stood for election against 57 male competitors

(Figure 5.1) (DER, 2014).

Figure 5.1: Female and male candidates in Governorates in election 2014 Source: DER, 2014

Data showed that in Muharraq Governorate, only one female candidate stood for the parliamentary election in 2014. In Shamalyeh Governorate, seven female candidates contested the election. In Janubeyah Governorate, six female candidates contested against 57 male competitors. Data also showed that most of the female candidates contested for the election in Shamalyeh Governorate compared to the male and female candidates in the other governorates.

Data also show that in Asemah Governorate, there were 10 constituencies. In

Constituency five of Asemah Governorate, two female candidates contested the election in the same constituency. Equally, in Constituency 10 in Asemah

Governorate, three female candidates contested the election from the same constituency.

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In constituencies two, six and seven of Asemah Governorate, one female candidate contested in each constituency. In constituencies one, three, four, eight, and 9, no female candidate contested for the election (Figure 5.2).

Figure 5.2: Female candidates in Asemah Governorate

In Muharraq Governorate, there were eight constituencies and no female candidate contested in elections in the Governorate. However, one female candidate contested for the election in Constituency four. Therefore, no female candidate contested the election in constituencies one, two, three, five, six, seven and eight

(Figure 5.3).

Figure 5.3: Female candidates in Muharraq Governorate

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In Shamalyeh Governorate, there were 12 constituencies and only one female candidate contested for the election in each of its following constituencies: one, four, five, six, eight, 10 and 12. Meanwhile, there were no female candidates who contested the election in constituencies two, three, seven, nine and 11 (Figure 5.4).

Figure 5.4: Female candidates in Shamalyeh Governorate

In Janubeyah Governorate there were 10 constituencies. In Constituency six, two female candidates contested the election in one constituency. In constituencies one, two, five and eight, there was one candidate in each while no female candidate contested the election in constituencies three, four, seven, nine, and 10 (Figure 5.5).

Figure 5.5: Female candidates in Janubeyah Governorate

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The illustrations so far show that there were fewer female candidates than their male counterparts in all constituencies during the 2014 Parliamentary Election in Bahrain. Also, in a constituency in Asemah Governorate, two female candidates competed against each other. In another constituency in Asemah Governorate, three female candidates competed against each other. But in Muharraq Governorate, a female candidate stood alone against male competitors. No female candidates contested in some of the other constituencies.

5.2 What is Political Marketing?

The informants were asked to define political marketing. Data show that four informants said political marketing required ‘sales skills’; three believe it is how the female candidates ‘introduced their products’; two believed that it is ‘media campaign’, and one indicates that it is about ‘strategies’ that the female candidates use to compete as shown in Figure 5.6 below.

Figure 5.6: Informants’ perception about political marketing

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Data also show that four of the informants believe that political marketing is about the skills and abilities of the female candidates to persuade voters to select them. Two informants note that political marketing is introducing the female candidate to society; two informants state that political marketing is about media and how the female candidates utilised media to win; one informant believe that political marketing are strategies, techniques and objectives that are used in the campaign to enable the female candidates to win.

Most of the informants state that political marketing required sales skills. For example, Informant C1 states in Line 15 that; Political marketing is what we try as possible as we can to persuade people in our constituency or all the people about our thoughts and ideologies.

However, Informant C2 focuses on marketing herself as a product as she mentions in Line 12 that: I will talk about marketing for myself. The Informant C2 stated that it is important to know how to market in the right time and right way

(using strategies, sales skills). She adds in Line 16 that; At the end and based on my experience and knowledge, I had come up with one conclusion that a candidate is a

“product”. Excuse me if I use “product” for candidate, but in marketing terminology we use “product” in terms that we do marketing for this product using the right way in the right time.

Also, Informant C3 believes that political marketing needs abilities of the female candidates to persuade people to reach office. She states in Line 14 that;

Political marketing is about the abilities of a person to market for himself to reach the political office or a political position that serve people irrespectively [of] his[sic] own objectives. Political marketing is… using all possible and invent[ing] new

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techniques to be able to reach as many as possible of people [sic] and persuade them about his[sic] entitlement or his[sic] ability to hold the position and be voted.

Similarly, Informant C7 believes that political marketing meant persuading voters about the candidate’s product in Line 16 thus; Political marketing is when a person marketing for him/herself to citizens where he or she says; I will do so and so, and these are my possibilities and my election programme if he or she has an electoral programme and meet people. This is my definition of political marketing.

Also, C8 believes that political marketing meant introducing the candidates to society. She defines political marketing in Line 16 as; the social and political advertisement of a female candidate; what is my background and what are my objectives to stand for election.

Political marketing for Informant C4 is how to introduce the product of a candidate to voters. It is the skills to convince voters about the political product. She defines political marketing in Line 17 as;

When you do marketing for any product, products are varied, but the principle is the same. You …need to introduce this product to people. Whatever the product; is it a person, tea, car or anything else. You need to take every possible and available technique to introduce this person or product to people. So, I believe that political marketing is the basic and essential process especially in elections.

Informant C6 had her own business and marketed for her business on social media. She feels that there is no relationship between commercial and political marketing. But at the end of her definition of political marketing, she mentions that it is about positioning herself as a product to voters. She notes in Line 26 that; …there was no attention from any side that women were not wanted as candidates. I suffered to prove that I was[sic] existed. I spent a lot of money to prove that I was there.

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Informant C5 believes that political marketing is all about media. She states in Line 24 that; Political marketing [is] associated with media marketing and cultural marketing. If the candidate separates political marketing from the other marketing I mentioned, then the candidate would lose.

Informant C10 also associates political marketing to the media, stating in her definition of political marketing at first that “she does not know anything about political marketing” but then she states that political marketing is a media campaign.

She states in Line 20 that; Frankly I do not know what political marketing is. But for me I conducted a media campaign. I had to do all activities of the media campaign…

Political marketing was not a primary part, but it was media campaign. Political marketing was a part of media campaign; it was the whole process of the election.

Meanwhile, Informant C9 uses her knowledge and experience to define political marketing. She gave a definition that contained most of the political marketing concepts. She defines political marketing in Line 17 as;

… identifying the objectives, advantages and characteristics of the candidate which differentiate a candidate from the others. Political marketing focuses on the slogan and election programme. All these required tools and techniques that are appropriated for each target group of voters. Political marketing is not limited to a certain concept, but it is for all are [sic] in the concepts fall under political marketing.

In sum, the informants focus on sales skills to persuade voters to select them.

However, the media was important for the candidates to introduce themselves to voters. The informants focus on the sales skills rather than design their political products.

Before proceeding to discuss the behaviour of the informants in the 2014

Parliamentary Election in Bahrain, it is significant to discuss the political environment and the culture. Understanding the political environment and culture

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provides more understanding about the challenges that informants faced and what informed their decisions to implement certain approaches in their election campaigns.

5.3 Political Environment

Political environment was a challenge for the informants. It influenced the strategies of the informants. Each governorate and constituency had its characteristics and each informant encountered specific difficulties that were different from the difficulties faced by candidates in other governorates. The major difficulty faced by informants was the boycott by the Al Wefaq Islamic Society which led to the boycott of voting by voters and the cancellation of the Wusta Governorate. These were the most powerful challenges that informants faced.

Figure 5.7: Informants and political environment

Furthermore, data in Figure 5.7 above shows that three informants state that the boycott was one of the phases of the political environment that influenced their campaigns; three of the informants’ campaigns were influenced by the voters’ boycott; three informants state that the cancelation of the Wusta Governorate caused 153

confusion in their strategies; and two informants note that domination by the Al

Wefaq society influenced their campaigns. However, the boycott by Al Wefaq caused a boycott by their followers to vote during the election. It was also an opportunity for another informant to stand for election.

5.3.1 Political Societies Boycott the Election

Three of the informants state that the boycott of the election by political societies influenced their campaigns. Three of the informants who stood in Shamalyeh faced the Al Wefaq Islamic Society. The three of them stood for the second round of election. Surprisingly, two of these informants were among those who won their parliamentary seats and they indicate that they faced threats from the boycott of Al

Wefaq. Informant C2 said in Line 38 that; because at that time… some political societies were hesitated [sic] to go for election and some of these political societies boycotted election. Besides that, my constituency encountered a huge boycott of the election. Also, Informant C7 states in Line 146 that; But I think that Al Wefaq Society boycotted, that was a good opportunity for the three female candidates to reach the parliament.

In Asemah Governorate, Al Wefaq also impacted on the voters in some constituencies. Many candidates were observing the movements of Al Wefaq.

Informant C3 found that Al Wefaq’s hesitation to participate in the election was a good opportunity that encouraged her to contest. For example, Informant C3 mentions that the boycott by Al Wefaq for election was a good opportunity for her to stand for election. Informant C3 states in Line 194 that; First and before I did anything, I observed that some political societies were boycotted [sic] the election.

This was a motive for me to stand for election. The political society announcement

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about boycott [of] all the Shi’a to the election drove me to decide to stand for election. She adds that the boycott motivated her to announce her candidacy. She states in Line 197 that;

In fact, Al Wefaq[‘s] announcements had [sic] contradictory; some days they decided to boycott next day they announced to participate in [the] election. I needed to confirm if Al Wefaq would boycott or not. So, I contacted Al Wefaq society. They confirmed that they would not be involved in [the] election and would not nominate any of their candidates.

5.3.2 Boycott of Voters

The informants also faced boycott by voters because of the influence of Al Wefaq on its followers. The influence of Al Wefaq was strong in some constituencies of

Asemah and Shamalyeh. The informants who stood in the constituencies of these

Governorates encountered boycott by voters. Data show that three of the informants state that they faced voters who boycotted the election.

Data also show that two of the informants who encountered voters’ boycott qualified for the second round. However, even though they could not win the election, their vote shares were very high.

Informant C3 notes that the voters boycotted the election. She states in Line

163 that on the other side, half of the voters’ boycott election. The informant calls the boycott “conservative voters”. In her constituency, few Sunni voters boycotted the election. Informant C6 stated in Line 183 that; You know that there were some conservative voters to the election from some groups of the society. These conservative groups were not only from Shi’a but also Sunni.

Al Wefaq’s announcement of boycotting the election was a message to its followers not to participate in the election. This was just few days before the

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election. Boycott of voters forced the informants to redesign their strategies.

Informant C8 states in Line 44;

In fact, the time was too short to start my election campaign. I did not segment the voters at the beginning. In my constituency [with] 7,000 voters, 5,000 of them boycotted the election. My mission was so difficult. I visited every house and got no response because of boycott.

5.3.3 Cancellation of the Wusta Governorate

Cancellation of the Wusta Governorate and merging its constituencies with

Janubeyah created a problem for the female candidates who stood for elections in

Janubeyah. Data showed that three of the informants said that this was a problem for them.

The constituencies of Wusta Governorate were merged to Janubeyah. The action of merging constituencies in Wusta Governorate with others in the Janubeyah

Governorate confused the strategies of the informants who stood in Janubeyah. For example, Informant C4 states in Line 266 that; the changing of governorates and constituencies confused me. The Central Governorate was cancelled; its constituencies were merged to some other governorates. This procedure confused me, and the cancellation of the Central Governorate forced me to start from the beginning… Also, Informant C9 was confused because of the change in the constituencies. She expresses in Line 43 that;

The changing of the Governorates in 2014 influenced my campaign. Constituencies have been changed; blocks were merged to some other constituencies and governorates. There were blocks [which] were not in my constituency… they were added to my constituency. So, I had to start from the beginning to identify the voters’ needs. You know that characteristics and needs of voters are different form [one] area to another.

On the contrary, Informant C6 indicates that merging the cancellation of

Wusta Governorate and merging the constituencies to Janubeyah did not influence

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her campaign. The female candidate who stood in Isa Town which is one of the constituencies of Janubeyah Governorate had a mix of voters. Informant C6 notes in

Line 78 that; Isa Town was merged to Southern Governorate, but it had mixed [sic] of voters. In fact, tribal mentality had nothing to do in Isa Town before merging and after merging. Tribal mentality was clearer in Riffa.

5.3.4 Al Wefaq Domination

The influence of Al Wefaq was clear in few constituencies in Shamalyeh and few constituencies of Asemah. Two of the informants indicate that Al Wefaq were dominant in their constituencies.

Informant C5 stood in Shamalyeh and noted that Al Wefaq dominated her constituency. Informant C5 states in Line 32 thus; Voters in my constituency did not believe in women in general and in women who stand for election in specific. They could not imagine that a woman in politics domain [sic]. Moreover, you need to know that my constituency was dominated by Al Wefaq Political Society.

Informant C7 developed a strategy to compete. The domination of Al Wefaq forced her to change her strategy. She states in Line 98;

My constituency was dominated by a political society that boycotted the election. When I studied the market; I knew the competitors and I knew that the boycott would influence my campaign. Boycott was the most difficult obstacle. But there were on the other side people who believed in women contributions in legislative [sic].

In sum, the political environment influenced the informants’ strategies. Most of them were influenced negatively. The most influential factors in the political environment that affected the informants’ strategies were boycott of voters for the election and the cancelation of Wusta Governorate.

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5.4 Cultural Factor

Authors agree that culture can be defined as the values, signs, traditions, symbols and customs that are shared between individuals in a society. Culture influences the thinking, attitudes, and behaviour of people including the informants.

Data as depicted showed that seven of the informants agreed that masculinity dominated the election. Three informants stated that tribalism influenced their campaigns. Four of the informants showed high uncertainty avoidance. Two of the informants’ campaigns were influenced by the collectivism mentality. Two of the informants addressed the issue of “Welayat Al Maraa” (the rule of women) (Figure

5.8).

Figure 5.8 Informants and culture

5.4.1 Masculinity

Masculinity was one of the cultural dimensions that the informants believed influenced their election campaigns. Data show that seven of the informants indicated that masculinity played a role during their election campaign.

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Informant C1 states that her constituency is dominated by masculinity, but she did not experience its negative impact, because many male voters and audiences supported her election campaign. She indicates in Line 165 that; Yes, masculinity was there but I did not feel that it influenced my campaign. People in my constituency supported and encouraged me to run for office, but the polls said something else.

Also, Informant C2 mentions that masculinity was domineering in her constituency, but she was able to counter it by marketing herself. Informant C2 notes in Line 107 that; Moreover, I had 9 men [sic] competitors, in a constituency which had never experienced a female candidate ever. Even the issue of masculinity was

[sic] dominated the election.

Similarly, Informant C3 states in Line 310 that; The problem was that Shi’a were not aware about the role of women in society[‘s] development. They think that it is not acceptable to be ruled by women. Informant C4 states that there is improvement in the acceptance of women in politics, noting in Line 394 that; First of these obstacles is the culture of society. I thought that we can change the culture. My data of election showed that there were some improvements in accepting for [sic] women in elections.

Informant C4 later confirmed that masculinity influenced her campaign according to her statement in Line 404;

masculinity was existed [sic]. But I think I could deal with it. I was sending a message that before you take decisions just try me. I did not come here for marriage proposal to ask if I am a male or female. Talk to me as a candidate that would present your cases in the parliament.

Informant C7 stated in Line 109 too that the male competitors in her constituency aimed to under estimate her because of her gender;

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The competitors’ problem was that they thought that I was a simple number in the formula. They did not expect that I would win. They did not put me in their attention only because I was a female... They were counting the votes of each male candidate, they thought I would collect few votes and sometimes they even thought that I would collect nothing.

On the contrary, Informant C8 was supported by men. Hence, she believes that masculinity had no influence. Informant C8 supports her stand in Line 241 thus;

In my constituency for example, I did not feel that there was masculine mentality.

Most of the audiences in my electoral tent were men. Those men supported women in all fields.

Informant C9 adds that masculinity was the first obstacle that she felt influenced her election campaign as states in Line 183 thus; The first was the masculinity of the culture, but it was not the most difficult. However, the society raised the slogan “feminist”, still the culture is masculine. That’s what I felt in my constituency.

5.4.2 Tribalism

Janubeyah Governorate is located at the southern end of the main island of Bahrain.

Janubeyah include modern areas such as Isa Town, and old areas such as Riffa

Sharqi (East Riffa) and Riffa Gharbi (West Riffa). Data show that three of the informants indicated that there was tribal mentality and it influenced their campaigns.

Tribalism is one of the characteristics of the culture of Bahrain. This was reflected in the statements of Informant C4 who contested for election in Janubeyah.

She notes in Line 63 that;

In 2014, Southern Governorate was dominated by tribal mentality. Female [candidates] standing for election was something strange and

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unacceptable for the people of the Southern Governorate. There, you would find this question; who is this woman who stands against a man? …. So, my campaign in my constituency was not to persuade people to vote for me, but to persuade them to vote for women.

Also, Informant C9 states that her constituency was dominated by tribalism as observed in Line 51; Some blocks were dominated by tribal mentality; the other blocks were more sectarian. Somewhere in her interview, Informant C9 states that tribalism was good for her election campaign because if the female candidate is from a tribe, then voters from that tribe supported her. She states in Line 174 that;

Tribalism is also important, in terms of: what is the tribe of the female candidate?

From which family she comes? [sic] This attitude could be seen very clear in some areas and not clear in other areas.

Informant C6 put the statement of Informant C9 about tribes clearly in Line

78 thus; Isa Town was merged to Southern Governorate, but it had mixed voters. In fact, tribal mentality had nothing to do in Isa Town [sic] before merging and after merging. Tribal mentality was clearer in Riffa.

Informant C6 justified why tribalism was good and supported her campaign.

Informant C6 states somewhere else in her interview in Line 218 thus;

Let me tell you something about tribal mentality. Bahrainis who were originally Syrians told me that they would vote for me. Bahrainis who were originally Yemenis told me that they would vote for me. By the way my husband is Bahraini originally Yemeni. In my case, tribal[ism] was on my side not against me. However, Bahrainis Yemenis were members in Islamic Societies [sic], they voted for me.

5.4.3 Uncertainty Avoidance

Data revealed that four of the informants showed uncertainty about the future. They referred their decision to contest as candidates in the next election to the will of

Allah. For example, Informant C2 states that it was too early to decide if she would

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stand for the next election. Informant C2 notes in Line 283 that; I develop my personality and skills for the development sake [sic]. Next election is in the future. It is too early to decide.

Similarly, Informant C4 states in Line 416 that;

There is a question I am facing: will I stand for the next parliamentary election? My answer is: I do not know yet. But I feel that I would not. We can’t predict the future. Perhaps, circumstances would be changed [sic] in the next election, and then I [will] decide to stand.

Informant C8 notes that even if she has activities that created her brand, she was still not sure about her decision to contest for the next parliamentary elections.

Informant C8 states in Line 294 that; All these social, political, voluntary and academic activities created my brand if I decide to stand for election in the future.

Also, the Informant C8 notes in Line 278 that; Despite [the fact that] I did not decide to stand for elections in the next years, after I saw what happened. I would say that parliamentary election is not suitable for me. I tried once [sic] and did not win.

5.4.4 Collectivism

Collectivism shows to what extent a society’s decisions influence the decisions of individuals. Data show that collectivism was useful to Informant C7. Informant C9 also sent messages to voters to satisfy their social needs. Informant C7 discusses her slogans with her family members before confirming the one to use for her election campaigns. Informant C7 states this in Line 73;

I had a group of slogans. Because there was no one who worked alone. I discussed these slogans with my family about which is the best slogan to be used in the election. We all agreed that the one you knew is the best slogan.

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The culture of the society of the Kingdom of Bahrain is characterised as collectivist. Informant C9 used slogan associated with collectivism, for example, in

Line 116 thus; The words (advance homeland) take various dimensions; social, economic, cultural and developmental. To advance means to change. We together

[sic] change a situation to another.

5.4.5 Welayat Al Maraa’ (The Rule of Women)

The issue of Welayat Al Maraa’ surfaced during the 2014 Parliamentary Election in

Bahrain. Some Islamic societies used the issue to influence the informants’ election campaigns. Two of these informants mentioned that it was not Islam, but the interpretation of some political societies to issues of Quran that served their agendas such as “Welayat Al Maraa” which means (women rule). Data showed that

Informant C9 and Informant C10 indicated that religiosity has strong impact on their campaigns. In their interviews, Informants C9 and C10 addressed the issue of

(Welayat Al Maraa’) that was used by Islamic Societies. For example, Informant C9 states in Line 168 that; …In mosques, they repeated that women are incomplete in mind and religion, she should not have Al Welayeh and in court one lady’s witness would not be accepted, but two ladies and one man. Similarly, Informant C10 comments in Line 64 that: In 2010 and 2014 parliamentary elections, in my constituency, religious men used the term of “Al Welayeh” and that women have no

Welayeh means she cannot rule… such language hinder women to reach legislative

[sic].

Most of the informants appeared during their election campaigns in Arab-

Muslim clothes. Almost all the female candidates appeared in the media and in public dressed in long clothes that covered all their bodies and hair. Moreover,

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presenting women at male gatherings is socially unacceptable. Hence, female candidates encountered difficulties in presenting their products to men at male

Majlis. Some female candidates could enter the community of men as illustrated in the following sections. During their visits to families or male Majlis, those female candidates took a man or their campaign managers along on such visits. Informant

C4 states in Line 135 that; When I went to the family of the voters, there were my campaign manager and my sister with me because it is unacceptable to visit houses alone.

5.5 Empowerment Programmes of SCW

The role of the Supreme Council for Women (SCW) in supporting and empowering women in politics was clear, because it was the strategic partner for female candidates.

The Political Empowerment Programmes (PEPs) started since the beginning of the preparations for the 2002 elections in Bahrain. In preparation to participate in the 2006 elections, the Council General Secretariat created a comprehensive programme for women’s political empowerment in collaboration with Tamkeen and the Bahrain Institute for Political Development (BIPD) under the slogan “Together we build the country” (SCW, 2014).

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In preparation for the 2014 Parliamentary Elections, the SCW continued to implement its PEPs for Bahraini women. It succeeded in achieving notable results with three women being elected into the Parliament and three others for Municipal

Councils (SCW, 2014). Plate 5.1 below illustrates one of such workshops:

Plate 5.1: SCW Workshop on political empowerment for Bahraini women Source: SCW, 2014

The workshops organised by the SCW were to empower and enhance skills and knowledge of the female candidates and enable them to stand for elections. The workshops were held for a period of one year. Most of the female candidates were involved in the workshops organised by SCW and these workshops enhanced the female candidates’ awareness about political marketing.

Some informants improved their political knowledge and political marketing strategies through participation in workshops organised at home and courses abroad.

For example, Informant C4 who attended courses abroad states in Line 36 that; I attended [a] course for a year in 2007 in Bahrain Institute for Political Development

(BIPD) in Bahrain immediately after [the] experience of 2006 parliamentary election. I received Diploma Degree in Political Science after I finished the course of

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BIPD. I traveled to many countries such as Tunisia, USA to attend workshops and courses which added more information about political marketing strategies.

Some weaknesses and strengths were highlighted from the workshops organised by the SCW as illustrated in Figure 5.9 below. Two of the informants stated that the workshops organised by the SCW adopted a theoretical approach instead of being practical. One informant stated that the workshops were short and summarised; one noted that the workshops were good and added knowledge to the female candidates; and one stated that the training and workshops should also target the campaign teams of the female candidates.

Figure 5.9: Informants and the SCW workshops

However, there was a contrary opinion on the effect of the empowerment programmes. According to Informant C2, the PEPs increased the awareness of female candidates in political marketing accordingly as states in Line 27 thus;

I had attended workshops (Political Empowerment) which [were] organised by the SCW. These workshops encouraged me to decide to stand for election. The workshops took almost a year, but I had no idea about it. Also, I attended workshop (Political Media) which took three weeks or a month. In these two workshops, I started to know that the

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candidate is a “product”. Moreover, the workshops gave me ideas about how to manage election campaigns.

On the other hand, some informants indicate that there were some weaknesses in how these workshops were organised. Informant C9 believes that the workshops deployed theoretical approaches and lacked practical training. This is contained in the informant’s statement on Line 102;

Yes, I attended these workshops and courses. The programme was for a year which was theoretical. Few of these workshops were practical and came very late. Yes, I can say that there was training support from SCW… [and they] were good. The objectives of the presenters who participated in these workshops were to present their experience in elections.

The empowerment programme was available for all the female candidates who decided to contest in the election. However, some female candidates did not attend the whole workshop series. This affected their level of knowledge and skill on election campaign and political marketing strategies. For example, Informant C6 did not attend the whole empowerment programme conducted by the SCW. She comments in Line 56 that; The other female candidates attended those workshops that were organised by SCW. For me I attended them in the last three months before the election started. Also, Informant C8 states in Line 276 that;

I decided to stand for election. The intention to stand for election was [sic] existed but was not crystallised. I attended workshop[s] and courses that were organised by SCW for six months. But I attended just to know what these training[s was] all about, but not to prepare for election. These workshops and courses were just to increase my knowledge and gain experience.

Also, Informant C8 comments in Line 326 that; These workshops did not add to me anything and felt that it was wasting of time [sic]. Because, I found that people in my electoral tent did not ask me about the Constitution, and what these articles of

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the Constitution say. But …. questions about the state budget and how it was planned and spent.

Also, most of the informants indicate that these strategies could not be implemented in Bahrain because of differences in culture. Informant C4 comments in

Line 314 that; [the] Bahrain[i] society has its own characteristics which is different from other societies. In Bahrain, we have our customs, traditions which are different from other societies’. We could not implement a strategy that was successful in certain country [sic] on voters in my constituency.

Similarly, Informant C1 found that the experience that the presenters gave were from Europe or USA which have different cultural orientations. Informant C1 states in Line 84 that;

Our society is totally different than Europe[an] and USA societies. You should first understand our society. You should know the requirements of people. Then you design your programme.

Informant C4 notes that the training programme was useful, but it has some weaknesses. The Informant states in Line 37 that; I attended the workshop and courses that [were] organised by [the] SCW. All these workshops and courses were useful. The problem of these courses was that they were theoretical, and when you implement [it] in practical [sic], you find some difficulties.

In contrast, Informant C2 notes that these workshops increased her knowledge in political marketing. She states in Line 28 thus; … the workshops gave me ideas about how to manage election campaigns. Here, I started to associate my profession, the ideas about candidates, and elections. Before those workshops I had no idea that a candidate is a “product”. These workshops discussed many ideas and concepts such as movements in politics and candidates’ language such as “dirty language”.

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In conclusion, the informants received support from the SCW, which provided logistical support through workshops and courses to increase the informants’ knowledge in elections. Almost all the informants attended all sessions of the workshops, which gave them ideas and strategies to apply during the parliamentary election. There were some weaknesses like the inability to conduct the empowerment programmes using practical methods to enable participants to implement such strategies. Also, the strategies were adapted from countries that have different cultural orientations instead of being adopted within the context of Bahrain’s culture.

5.6 Summary

In sum, political situation and culture have their impacts not on the voters’ decision making, but also on the female candidates’. The findings showed that masculinity, tribalism and uncertainty avoidance dimensions of culture influenced the female candidates’ campaigns. Most of the informants indicated that culture had negative influences on their campaigns.

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CHAPTER 6

BEHAVIOUR OF THE INFORMANTS IN ELECTION

6.0 Introduction

This chapter illustrates findings from the coding of data from the study using

Grounded Theory based on three stages: before, during and after the 2014

Parliamentary Election in Bahrain. It should be noted that quotations that have been cited with anonymous references to informants (i.e. informants C1 to C10) in the chapter were extracted from the interviews conducted with informants.

6.1 Behaviour of the Informants before Election

Most of the female candidates who planned to stand for the 2014 election started their campaigns by participating in empowerment programmes organised by the

SCW. The programme lasted about a year, and included workshops, courses, seminars and presentations on experiences from other countries.

Most of the informants started preparing for the parliamentary election few weeks before the election campaigns officially started, except one female candidate who announced in May 2014 that she had decided to stand for election. There were no other electoral activities related to their campaigns, except their participation in the SCW empowerment workshops. Data from interviews and documents showed that the female candidates were involved in designing their product, using voter segmentation, identifying their communication tools and positioning their political product few weeks before and during election. Such preparations for the parliamentary election are subsequently discussed.

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6.2 Designing the Political Products

The data showed that nine of the informants contested in the parliamentary election as independents. The nine informants did not represent any ideology. One of the informants represented a political society. The informant who represented the political society did not represent ideology as the political society was new and was established during the unrest in Bahrain in 2011. All the informants in this study did not design their political product based on ideology.

In designing their products, the female candidates focused on; electoral programme, slogans, appearance, advertisements and posters, banners and images.

All the informants indicate that they designed their electoral programmes. Ten of them created slogans for the election campaigns; nine said they designed their advertisements, posters, banners and brochures.

Six of the Informants said that they were concerned with their appearance in images and presentations, and five indicated that their images were what they presented to persuade voters. This is illustrated in Figure 6.1 below.

Figure 6.1: Informants and political product

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6.2.1 Electoral Programmes

Data showed that nine of the informants stood for election as independents. One of them represented a political society. Hence, the informants did not represent ideology, but they focused on their electoral programmes, slogans and appearance.

Data showed that all informants designed their electoral programmes.

Data showed that topics of the informants’ electoral programmes were printed and distributed. Most of the informants located their programme topics on their posters. Also, the informants situated their election programme topics on brochures, posts on social media and in newspapers.

The situation of electoral programmes by the informants are illustrated in

Plate 6.1 below, where one of the informants printed and distributed her brochure, which contained her image, a topic of her election programme titled: “A Project of the Homeland”, the slogan, the constituency and at the bottom, her social media contact. Most of the informants designed their election programme the way that is shown in Plate 6.1 below.

The female The female candidate’s name candidate’s

Image

Plate 6.1: Electoral Programme on Poster of a female candidate Source: The informant’s poster

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Data also show that beside brochures, some of the informants used social media to distribute their programmes. In Plate 6.2 below, an informant presented a topic for her programme on her Instagram page.

The female candidate image and name

The female candidates’ image and name

The female candidate’s name

Plate 6.2: Electoral Programme on a female candidate’s Instagram account Source: An Informant’s account on Instagram

During campaigns, C1 found that voters were interested in her programme more than her thoughts as contained in her statement in Line 39 thus; My team and I focused on the programme more than me as a “product”. That was because we started to prepare for the campaign very late… For me I started late; this of course minimised the chance to introduce myself to voters. Meanwhile, Informant C2 focused on services in her programme as she states in Line 179 thus;

I believed that young people were [sic] the future of [a] country. However, “youth” was not in my election programme. There was more than one issue in my election programme such as improvement of living, providing job opportunities and more, but the youth issues were not one of my electoral programme points.

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Informant C3 focused on areas that were important to voters. She states in Line

63 that; In my electoral programme, I focused on five areas; education, health, work, housing, and retirement. These areas are the most important issues for voters.

Additionally, Informant C8 used her experience as a doctor to design her programme. She notes in Line 22 that;

I had preview about what the voters need from what I read and heard... I found [that their problems were] … all about economical and material needs. For example, they need houses, increase [in] their salaries and improve[d] health services. Thus, improvement of health services was one of my electoral programme points. I used this point because I am a doctor and understand that this need is a very important [one]. There were some topics in my election programme [that] came from my experience as a doctor and some of them came from my observation through my work in the Ministry of Health.

6.2.2 Slogans

Data showed that all the informants indicated that they created their own slogans and designed their slogans, which reflected feminine traits. Slogans of Informants C1,

C7, C8, C9 and C10 reflected feminine values. In their slogans, the Informants selected themes associated with development, family, advancement, and education.

Meanwhile, Informants C2, C3 and C6 selected themes to motivate voters to change.

Table 6.1 illustrated the slogans of the informants:

Table 6.1: Slogans of the informants Informant Slogan in Arabic In English We Develop to Enhance نطور لنرتقي C1 Vote and Change صوت وغير C2 Right Selection, Correct Path حسن اإلختيار يصحح المسار C3 Citizens Dignity is a Right and Loyalty to Homeland is كرامة المواطن C4 a Duty حق، والوالء للوطن واجب Your Concern is My Concern همكم همي و كرامتكم كرامتي C5 Participate to Change شارك لتغير C6 Towards a Dignified and Safe Family نحو أسرة كريمة آمنة C7 Reliability and Commitment إلتزام و مصداقية C8 Together we Advance Homeland معاً نرتقي بالوطن C9 Towards Better Education نحو تعليم أفضل C10

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Furthermore, as illustrated in Plate 6.3 below, one of the informants located her slogan at the bottom of the poster. The informants located their slogans on their posters, advertisements and everywhere to be seen by voters.

Image of the

candidate Name of the candidate

Slogan

Plate 6.3: A slogan of a female candidate on poster Source: The informant’s poster

6.2.3 Advertisements, Posters, Banners and Brochures

Advertisements, banners, posters and brochures were used to convey messages to voters. All the informants designed their advertisements, posters, banners and brochures almost in the same format. The advertisements and posters were in newspapers, on walls, on banners and brochures. Informant C4 printed her image and slogan on hats, brochures and leaflets. She states in Line 176 that;

I used many things such as printed brochures and leaflet everything [that] might come to your mind, everything. I printed my image, name and slogan on hats. I took these hats with me to playing fields and distributed to young people who were playing. ……. Hats did not cost much and not what the people deserved but they protected them from heat of the sun, and still my name, image and slogan was kind of advertisement for me.

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Informant C5 used her qualification in her advertisement. She notes in Line 79 that; In my advertisements I used (Prof. Dr. ……) which played big role to keep my image and brand in the memory of voters through all stages of election.

Furthermore, advertisements were tools that presented the informants’ products in newspapers. The advertisements in newspaper were expensive for the informants.

Most of them indicated that using newspaper for months cost them a lot. For example, Informant C6 states in Line 136 thus; Also, you need to notice that the female candidates spend a lot of money on their election campaigns. Advertisements campaigning and taking advantages of candidates in using Instagram were unethical.

Informant C6 confirmed that the cost of advertisements was expensive. She notes in Line 259 that; Prices of advertisements in traditional media were too expensive for me. Media coverage were so weak, despite the media coverage makes

[sic] big differences not for candidates only but also for the newspapers and the election activities.

Advertisements present female candidates to voters. Informant C7 did not believe in advertisements, but as she said, she did it because voters wanted it. The

Informant C7 notes in Line 60 that;

It was only in the last week, I advertised in a newspaper… I did not believe in advertisements, but I did it. I did this because voters wanted to see the candidate they would select. Thus, I advertised in newspapers and only for three days before the election started.

Informant C8 designed brochures and banner for advertisement newspapers.

She confirms that the advertisements were expensive according to her statement in

Line 52 thus; We made brochures, banners and we advertised in newspapers;

Akhbar Al Khaleej, Al Watan, and Al Ayam. I spent a lot of money in this campaign.

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6.2.4 Appearance of the informants

Appearance of the informants was a component of their products. Informants were careful to present themselves to the public in appealing ways. Almost all the informants appeared in public in Islamic clothes, which cover their body and hair, but not face. Only one of the informants did not cover her hair.

Age of the female candidates gave impression that the female candidate can move and defend the voter’s cases in parliament. Data showed that six of the informants were between 31 and 35 years old; and four were between 45 and 55 years old. For example, Informant C5 believed that if an image and appearance of the female candidate showed that the candidate was old, then the voters would ask if she is able to move and do her work in parliament. She notes in Line 133 that; One of the female candidates who stood for election, people started to wonder that she was an old female candidate; what she is going to do in parliament? In fact, she was not old, but her image showed that she was an old [woman]. That gave an impression that her movements in parliament would be slow.

Informant C1 believes that appearance played a role in persuading voters. She noted in Line 180 that; appearance of the female candidate (shape, speech, cloths…etc) should be one of a candidate’s attributes. …. I received some comments such as “your appearance is nice, and we would like to cover your campaign”.

Informant C2 was aware of her appearance. Hence, she was careful in presenting herself to the public and media in a way that persuaded voters. She states in Line 45 that; My appearance in posters and images showed that I was younger…

Hijab as one of the Islamic symbol differentiated the informants’ appearance.

Informant C3 believed that wearing Hijab to cover her hair made a difference in persuading voters. She states in Line 149 that;

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Of course, appearance influences the voters’ decision making. Let me tell you about (Dr…….). She was liberal, but when she wore Hijab in her parliamentary election in 2006, she got much respect from voters. For me I was too young in 2006, but I saw (Dr……) and I respected her wearing her Hijab. This was indication that appearance is a very important attribute in the political product in our society. Also, [a] house wife would not vote for a female candidate who does not wear Hijab.

On the contrary, Informant C10 states that there is no relationship between

Hijab and election. She states in Line 123 that; From my viewpoint, it is not necessary that [a] female candidate wear[s] [a] Hijab or to show Islamic symbol.

There is no relationship between Hijab or any other symbol and winning the election. But for the voters yes, female candidate should wear Hijab.

In the SCW workshops, the female candidates were trained to use their appearance to persuade the voters. Informant C8 expresses in the Line 341 that;

(Sheikha Dr…) presented what should the female candidates wear, how they speak, and the way the female candidates should distribute their looking [sic] to all audiences.

It has been illustrated that the informants did not use any ideology in promoting their products, because they did not represent any political society. They used other products such as slogans, election programmes and their images. To distribute their product, they used advertisements, brochures and social media

(Twitter, Instagram and Facebook).

6.3 Market Intelligence

Candidates designed their campaigns based on market data, including voters’, competitors’, as well as environmental, political, social and economic changes. The data showed that six of the informants indicated that they conducted formal market

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research; four relied on their relations to collect the market data; four used the official statistics issued by DER. Meanwhile, four of the informants stated that they observed the market to identify the competitors and the voters’ needs. One informant noted that she used the media (internet and newspaper) which provided all the required information (Figure 6.2).

Figure 6.2: The Informants and market research

6.3.1 Survey

Data show that six of the informants indicated that they conducted small and simple surveys to identify the voters’ needs. This is because the constituencies were small, and the informants were familiar with the voters.

Informant C1 conducted a small survey for the following reasons. First, her constituency is small and did not need extended research. Secondly, the informants relied on their relations in collecting data. Thirdly, the voters were almost homogenous. Informant C1 states in Line 34 that; At the beginning, we identified the needs of voters. I conducted a simple survey because the constituency was small, and because my career served me to understand the voters’ needs, not in my constituency but all over Bahrain. 179

Informant C2 conducted a market research not only to identify her voters’ needs and wants, but also to enable her to segment her market and identify the communication tools. Informant C2 notes in Line 77 that; After I conducted a market research, I found that in my constituency…70% of the people read Al Wasat, 20% read Al Ayam and 10% read Akhbar Al Khaleej newspaper. It was very important to know your market. It is very important to know the channels that enable you to reach the voters and to send your messages.

Informant C4 said that she used survey to measure her voters’ attitudes towards women in politics. Based on the result of the survey she built her programme. Informant C4 notes in Line 276 that;

I conducted a survey to measure the voters’ attitudes towards women in elections. But, segmenting voters was based on the official statistics. I focused on the blocks of the constituency that had big bloc of voters to position my product. Also, my decisions were based on information that I collected from my organised visits and meetings.

Informant C8 also used her survey findings to identify the needs and wants of the voters. She notes in Line 37 that;

I designed a survey to study the voters in my constituency. I took randomly one block in my constituency. I found that most of the voters wanted to increase their salaries, provide jobs, improvement of living conditions. Besides, some voters focused on health. I found also that political issues were not that important for voters.

Informant C9 used information from the media (internet and newspaper), but when Wusta Governorate was cancelled she used a survey that she conducted. She stated in Line 209 thus; So, I depended on survey [to] covered [sic] the area. I segmented the voters [in]to young, old, retired and women. Then I targeted each group to position my election programme.

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Informant C10 complained of lack of information about the voters. She said that she conducted a survey that covered the voters, according to her statement in

Line 82 thus:

I conducted a survey to collect information of voters. This survey covered the voters, who would vote for me and who would not and who were conservatives. In fact, we received lists of the voters’ name[s] without addresses. So, we spent time and effort to identify the voters’ requirements and needs.

6.3.2 Data Collected by Relatives and Relations

Some of the informants used their relatives and relations to collect data on voters.

Data showed that four of the informants relied on their relations and relatives to identify the voters’ needs.

Informant C3 depended on her relatives and relation in data collection. She states in Line 258 that; It was kind of market research but through my relation and relatives in the area. It was not extensive, but I depended on the social figuers in the area. Also, I met the former PMs or the people who have information about the voters.

Similarly, Informant C4 depended on her mother who knew most of the voters in the constituency, because the information she used about the voters was provided to her by her mother. She states in Line 297 that; My mother was disabled, but she worked with me. My mother was teaching Quran. She was close to other women in my constituency. She was known in the constituency.

Thus, Informant C8 used her knowledge about the voters’ needs and wants.

She states in Line 22; I had preview about what the voters needs [sic] from what I read and heard. What I found was all about economical and material needs. For

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example, they need houses, increase [in] their salaries and improve[d] health services”.

Informant C7 indicated that she did not conduct market research and did not need to, as she was familiar with the voters in her constituency. Informant C7 notes in Line 141 that; No, I did not conduct any research. I am a daughter of my environment. I know each voter and each group. I did not need any research.

Informant C9 also used her working team to collect data of voters. She states in Line 32 thus; I identified these segments of voters during my visits to Majlis (male gatherings) and my discussion individually and in groups. Also, from my working team who provided me information about the voters.

6.3.3 Official Statistics

Some of the informants depended on the data from the Directorate of Election and

Referendum (DER), which did not provide data on some voters, but provided their identification (ID) numbers and addresses. Informant C4 depended on the statistics issued by the DER and stated in Line 277 that; …segmenting voters was based on the official statistics. I focused on the blocks of the constituency that had big bloc of voters to position my product. Informant C5 also used statistics issued by DER. She noted in Line 64 that; First, I segmented the voters based on the official information which were provided by the official organisation of election.

However, Informant C6 used data provided by the Supreme Council for

Women (SCW). She said in Line 146 that the; SCW provided us [with] lists of the identification numbers only of the voters. To divide those voters and to reach them was a difficult job. It was the hardest part of my election campaign.

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On the other hand, Informant C10 states that she faced problems of data collection. The data that was provided by the organisers contained only names and

ID numbers. Informant C10 notes in Line 25 that; Collected data was the most difficult problem we faced. The office that organised election provided us the names and identification numbers of the voters. But they did not provide their contact numbers or the addresses.

In conclusion, the informants used their relatives for data collection.

Informants relied on their families, friends to conduct their market research. Such action provided useful information as psychological and behavioural characteristics to segment their voters.

6.3.4 Observing Marketplace

Data from the marketplace were also collected through observation. This technique enabled the female candidates to update information about the market. Observing the marketplace provided information about the voters, competitors and any other changes that could occur. Informant C2 observed the movements of her competitors.

She stated in Line 53 that; I noticed that there were many men [who] announced their candidacy. Of course, that was good because I [was] motivated [by] many people to stand for[the] election.

Informant C3 also observed the marketplace, which gave her an advantage to contest in the election after she noticed that Al Wefaq boycotted the elections. She states in Line 194 that; First and before I did anything, I observed that some political societies were boycotted [sic] the election. This was a motive for me to stand for election. The political society announcement about boycott [by] all the Shi’a[s] to the election drove me to decide to stand for election.

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Additionally, Informant C8 designed her programme after she observed the marketplace. She noted in Line 26 that; There were some topics in my election programme [that] came from my experience as a doctor and some of them came from my observation through my work in the Ministry of Health.

6.3.5 Data from Media

The media was one of the informants’ sources of data. It provided data about the voters, Governorates, and Constituencies. But the data from the media did not provide data about the characteristics of voters or what they needed. Still, one of the informants stated that she used both traditional and new media to collect required data. Informant C9 used the information that was published on the internet and newspapers. She depended on these data to segment her voters. She noted in Line

205 that; We had statistics. I used the information that was provided in [sic] the internet to identify the problems of the constituency, which was my strategy to collect the required data. I also used newspapers and collected information about the issues that were in the voters’ focus.

6.4 Strategic Marketing

Marketers used strategies to effectively promote their products. Strategic marketing is based on three operations: market segmentation, targeting the required market and positioning the product.

6.4.1 Market Segmentation

Market segmentation is dividing voters into groups that share the same characteristics. The informants segmented their markets, but not using clear

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demarcations due to the following factors. First, Bahrain is a small country.

Secondly, the voters were almost homogenous. Thirdly, the time was short to segment the voters based on behavioural or psychological characteristics.

Data also showed that informants segmented voters using single and multiple characteristics, like: demography, political orientation, and media followers. This meant that, sometimes, informants could choose to use single or multiple segmentation characteristics like demography, political orientation and media followership. At other times, another informant may choose to use demography and/or political orientation or demography alone. This accounted for the increase in the total number of informants if the frequency of responses is tallied (Figure 6.3).

Figure 6.3: The informants and market segmentation

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6.4.2 Demographic Segmentation

Data showed that most informants segmented their markets on demographic basis.

They segmented voters based on sex (male, female), age (young, old), retired voters, new citizens, occupation and income (Figure 6.4).

Figure 6.4: Informants and demographic segmentation

Demographic segmentation included sex (male, female), age (old, young), citizens, retired, occupation and salaries and incomes. Informant C1 states that she segmented voters based on their ages in Line 19 and 20 thus;

I segmented them into groups. I segmented them based on ages; young people and old people. I communicated the young people through social media. I identified their concerns. I used Instagram to communicate the young voters. I also identified the old voters’ concerns. Old voters preferred newspapers and Twitter to follow the news of election.

Similarly, Informant C2 notes in Line 146 that; I divided voters into groups, male, female, household, families, salaries, income. I collected data of everything.

Some data were useful, and some data were not, but I took much information about the voters.

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Informant C3 divided the voters based on their age, sex, and professions. Her statement in Line 69 indicates thus; I divided them into groups; retired people, young people, women, and doctors. In my constituency there were doctors, which I found it

[sic] after I studied my constituency. Also, Informant C5 divided her voters according to age; that is, young and old voters. She notes in Line C5 that; There were differences between a young voter of 25 years old and voters who only read and write as I told you. Similarly, Informant C6 states that there were young and old voters, as well as male and female voters who came to her tent. She stated in Line

149 that; There were many voters; old and young voters, men and women – all came to my electoral tent. Informant C7 states she focused on female voters as a segment, but she did not tell if there were male voters. She stated in Line 33 that she segmented her voters and focused on female voters thus; I segmented the voters.

There were female voters.

Equally, Informant C9 focused on young, old, retired and women voters. She notes in Line 210 that; I segmented the voters [in]to young, old, retired and women.

Also, Informant C4 divided her voters based on sex and based on sects (Sunni and

Shi’a). She states in Line 128 that; I considered all standards to deal with voters. In

2006, my constituency had two sects; Sunni and Shi’a. In 2014, I identified male and female. Also, I divided them based on qualification.

Furthermore, Informant C5 found that there were new citizens in her constituency. She states in Line 56 that; I had Bahraini voters who gained their citizenships recently. In Losey district, there were almost 70% of the voters [who] were new citizens. Equally, Informant C4 found that beside gender segmentation, she found that there were new citizens as contains in her statement in Line 128;

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In 2014, I identified male and female. Also, I divided them based on qualification. There were also voters who recently gained their citizenship. In 2006 this group of the new citizens was not existed[sic] in the constituency. This group had their own language, accent, and had their own needs.

6.4.3 Political Orientation Segmentation

Political orientation was also a criterion that female candidates used to segment their markets, loyal voters and boycott voters (Figure 6.5).

Figure 6.5: Informants and political orientation segmentation

The two main segments of voters based on political orientation were; voters who boycotted the election and loyal voters. The most notable voters’ portion of the political oriented segmentation was the voters who boycotted the election. Few constituencies in Shamalyeh and Asemah encountered boycott, whereas the voters of the rest of the Governorates exercised their rights to vote. Hence, Informants C8, C7 and C10 segmented their voters into loyal and boycott voters. They used strategies to target each of these two groups of voters.

The main voters segment of Informant C10 were the loyal voters where she called them (voters with us) and the conservative (voters with competitors and/or

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voters who hesitated to vote for a candidate), and voters who hesitated to select.

Informant C10 states in Line 89 that;

We could divide them into three groups of voters; the voters who were with us. We invited voters of this group to our Al Khaimah Al Intekhabiyah (electoral tent). The voters who were not with us, we just ignored them. The third group was the voters who were conservatives or hesitated to vote for a certain candidate. We tried our best to convince them to be to our side.

Informant C7 also states in Line 35 that there were boycott voters and she persuaded some of them to vote for her. But the most notable group those who boycotted the election. This group was the most difficult and it was so hard to deal with them. Despite, there was the group who boycotted, most of them voted for me, she said.

Also, Informant C8 divided the voters based on boycott voters who lived in her constituency. She notes in Line 136 that; Part of my constituency was high class which contains VIPs, businessmen, politicians and social figures. The other part of my constituency is Al Belad Al Qadeem (Old Town). This part is a village and most of the people of this part boycotted the election. Third part has Persians.

6.4.4 Segmentation based on Media Followers

Media as a communication tool was not only used by informants to target and send their messages to their voters, but to also serve as a basis for voters’ segmentation.

Some people prefered printed media, whereas others prefered social media. Hence, the female candidates also segmented voters based on media usage.

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Figure 6.6: Informants and media followers’ segmentation

Data in Figure 6.6 above showed that two of the informants segmented voters based on their preference to follow the election activities. The two informants stated that they segmented their voters according to voters who read newspapers, while one informant indicated that there were voters who followed on social media. For example, Informant C1 segmented voters and targeted old voters who read newspapers and Twitter and young voters who preferred social media. She notes in

Line 20 that;

I communicated [with] the young people through social media. I identified their concerns. I used Instagram to communicate [with] the young voters. I also identified the old voters’ concerns. Old voters preferred newspapers and Twitter to follow the news of election.

Similarly, informant C2 segmented and targeted her voters who preferred newspapers and voters who preferred social media to follow election news. She

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stated in Line 148 that; I segmented voters into; people who read newspaper and the people who prefer social media.

6.5 Informants during the Election

The most notable behaviour of the informants during the election was creating, maintaining and strengthening their relationships with the stakeholders. The following illustrated the relation network that the informants relied on during the election.

6.5.1 Informants activate their Relationships

Data showed that almost all the informants used their relationships during the election. These relations included families, relatives, friends, , political societies and the people in the media. Family are those individuals who are close to the informants such as: father, mother, brother, husband, son or daughter. Relatives were people from the same family, either from the father’s or mother’s side (uncles and cousins). are people who have contributed immensely to the society and were known.

Politicians included political society members, ministers, political activists, and members of parliament.

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Almost all the informants depended on their families in their election campaign. Relatives also played roles in the female candidates’ campaigns. The informants’ relationship networks became wider to include, friends, media

(newspaper) and social media groups, neighbours and politicians (Figure 6.7).

Figure 6.7: Informants and their relations

Data in Figure 6.7 above showed that four of the informants stated that they used their families in managing their election campaigns; three of them said that they were supported by relatives; five stated that their friends supported them in election; three indicated that they were recommended and supported by, and two said that the media (newspaper), through writers and columnists helped them to advertise in the newspaper and social media groups. Additionally, two informants said that they were supported by politicians (members of parliament, political societies and ministers).

6.5.1(a) Family

Families of the informants played big role in their election campaigns.

Informants stated that members of their family supported them in their election campaigns. Four of the informants said that members of their families worked with them in their election campaigns. Informant C2 depended on her family to expand 192

her brand and product. She stated this in Line 156 thus; I mean when you stand for election in a constituency, your mother knows most of the people who live in this constituency, your father as well know[s] most of them. Similarly, Informant C4 was supported by her mother in her campaign because she noted in Line 280 that;

My mother… worked with me. My mother was teaching Quran. She was close to other women in my constituency. She was known in the constituency.

Additionally, Informant C3 noted in Line 50 that; during [the] election, I used Instagram. But, because I had no campaign manager, I used to [sic] manage the campaign by myself and my husband. Informant C7 also stated that she competed with her family member. Thus, family became a brand name for the informants in election. She stated in Line 26 thus; In the first round, one of my male competitors was from the family of mine. We both stood in the same constituency.

6.5.1(b) Relatives

Relatives of the informants also played roles in the informants’ campaigns. Data showed that three of the informants were helped by their relatives. Informant C2 stressed on the relatives in her election campaign. She states in Line 156 that;

Moreover, there were our friends and relatives who played role in my campaign.

Informant C3 in Line 50 also notes that;

My relationship in [sic] media also served me. I was known to all writers and columnists of the newspapers. They allowed me to use the newspapers to advertise for free. During election, I used Instagram. But, because I had no campaign manager I used to manage the campaign by myself and my husband.

Meanwhile, though Informant C3 did not use relatives, she also agreed that using relatives would increase a female candidate’s votes as states in Line 139; …she

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can increase her votes through her relations and relatives. Also, Informant C6 states in Line 24 that; My team contained my relatives, and no one was from out of my relatives.

6.5.1(c) Social Figures

The informants used their relationship with social figures that supported them.

According to three of the informants, they were supported by social figures. They invited the social figures to give speeches during their campaigns. For example,

Informant C1 invited some social figures to support her campaign. She said in Line

69 that; Then we identified the guests who would participate in my campaign

(journalists, politicians..., etc). Once the election campaigns officially started, we invited [the] press to cover the event and the guests to give speeches.

Informant C3 stated that a female candidate needed to make her presence felt in the media. So, her relations and relatives voted for her. She states in Line 139 that;

Yes, yes, true. It is important that the female candidate should present herself in media that she represents voters. From this point, she can increase her votes through her relations and relatives.

Somewhere else in the interview, Informant C3 states that she relied on the one of the social figures in collecting data for her research on the voters. She notes in

Line 258 that; It was kind of market research but through my relation[s] and relatives in the area. It was not extensive, but I [also] depended on the social figures in the area. Informant C8 also targeted the head of the family whom she had good relationship with to pass her messages to the voters who were members of the family.

She said in Line 183 that; Some families had Ameer (Head) of the family. I met the family’s Ameer who passed my message to all the member[s] of the family.

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6.5.1(d) Friends

The culture of Bahrain is collectivist in nature. Hence, friends of the informants supported and helped them during the campaigns and election. The responses showed that five informants were supported by friends. For example, Informant C2 used her friends who lived out of her constituency to persuade her voters to select her. She states in Line 74 that; The purpose of this strategy was that the people who were not in my constituency would persuade the people in my constituency.

Similarly, Informant C3 states that she depended on her friends to solve some problems with the voters. She states in Line 143 thus; I mean that [a] female candidate should know to whom she should refer. The housing problem, for example

I knew as I worked in [the] media where I had to go to find answers.

Likewise, Informant C5 states that her friends played big roles in her campaign. These friends moved from the area, but they still supported the candidate’s campaign. According to Informant C5 in Line 75; There were also people who knew about me, but they moved to some other areas. Those people played role[s] to marketing[sic] for me.

Informant C7 in Line 134 also notes that relatives went beyond support to work with female candidates to select her even if she is not qualified. According to

Informant C7; there were some voters [who] elected candidates who are known as relatives or friends such as a brother, a cousin, a nephew, a relative, a neighbour or a friend, but they do not select the qualifier [sic]. Informant C8 also used her relationship with her clients. She notes in Line 134 that; …also, members of a family who were brothers of one of my patients came to my electoral tent and supported me.

These people took chance to discuss. One of my patients sent me two of the family members to join my team voluntarily.

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6.5.1(e) People who work in the Media

Advertisement is one of the tools that candidates use to send messages like slogan, image, contact numbers and other information that informs the public about the candidate. The informants who participated in this study complained that the cost of advertisements was high. Hence, the informants used their relationships with columnists and writers to advertise in newspapers and the social media. Two of the informants stated that they used their relationships with the media.

Informant C1 was supported by people in the media, because of her relationship with newspaper reporters and columnists. The columnists and reporters were present at her headquarters to cover her campaigns. Her relationship with the people who work in the media enabled her to use the media in her campaigns. She notes in Line 74 that; Once the election campaigns officially started, we invited

[members of the] press to cover the event and the guests to give speeches.

Similarly, Informant C3 had relationships with the people who work in the media and this enabled her to use the newspaper to advertise. She notes in Line 50 that;

My relationship in [the] media also served me. I was known to all writers and columnists of the newspapers. They allowed me to use the newspapers to advertise for free. During election, I used Instagram. But, because I had no campaign manager I used to manage the campaign by myself and my husband.

6.5.1(f) Politicians

Politicians such as PMs, Ministers and representatives of political societies who had experience provided their support to the informants. Data show that two informants were supported by politicians. Informant C3 stated that a former PM supported her while Informant C6 said that she was supported by a political society. Informant C3

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had good relationship with a former PM who provided information about the voters.

She states in Line 259 that; I met the former PMs or the people who have information about the voters. I met (Dr…). At the beginning, I got nothing from her, but when she changed her address and stand for election in other constituency [sic], she provided me all the information I needed about the voters.

6.6 The Informants started their Election Campaigns

Two weeks before the election, the informants opened campaign headquarters.

Streets, roads became full of candidates’ posters, advertisements and tents of the candidates. The informants started their campaign by sending messages to their stakeholders. In general, the informants targeted voters but the main objectives of these messages were; announcing about their candidacy, introducing themselves and their election programme and launching their campaigns. Some messages targeted voters who were the main group of stakeholders. Additional messages targeted other groups of stakeholders such as competitors, media and government. All the informants used newspaper and social media to send their messages.

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In the media coverage illustrated in Plate 6.4 below, the candidates’ election campaign commencement were conveyed using posters and ads to show how the informants started their campaigns. The example below was titled: “Two weeks before poll: Tens of candidates launched their Election Headquarters….

Advertisements invade roads”.

Plate 6.4 Posters and advertisements of the candidates who contested parliamentary election Source: Al Ayam, 8th November 2014, No.9343, p. 6

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Most of the informants sent messages associated with the needs and wants of voters. For example, the Informant C9 targeted the retired people. She announced on

17th November 2014; “Retired people are experts; homeland should make use of them” (Al Aayam, 17th November 2014, No.9352, p. 14).

Furthermore, Informant C3 raised an interesting topic for voters in the media when she publicised that; “33000 of the citizens’ salaries are below BD 300” (Al

Ayam, 18th November 2014, No. 9292, p. 14). Informant C3 further used her media messages to target a segment of the voting population, that is, young people. She said, “Public sector will not be able accommodate educational outcomes. Vacancies of Ministry of Labour do not meet ambition” (Al-Ayam, 9th October 2014, No. 9313, p. 11).

Informant C6 raised another interesting topic for voters. She selected the

“housing” issue. She demanded the Ministry of Housing to amend their decisions.

She stated that; “We demand the Ministry of Housing to amend their decisions” (Al

Ayam, 24th October 2014, No. 9328, p. 9). Informant C6 also targeted young people in her message thus; “Appointing young people in decision making positions is necessary for all sectors’ development” (Al Ayam, 5th November 2014, No. 9341, p.8). Informant C6 highlighted the preceding issue further. She said; “emphasise the education of young people to enable them to practice their national rights” (Al Ayam,

7th October 2014, No. 9311, 7). Likewise, Informant C8 capitalised on the housing problem in her message. She said; “Towards justice in distribution of houses and activate the role of “Waqf”” (Al Ayam, 7th November 2014, No. 9343, p. 10).

Some other informants presented their programmes and themselves. For example, Informant C9 said; “some people stand for election just for a seat or good wages: I contributed in the country’s development, But I will stand as [an]

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independent” (Al Ayam, 10th October 2014, No. 9314, p 9). Informant C9 added thus;

“I will be with you and between you to achieve your hopes and aspirations” (Al

Ayam, 9th November 2014, No. 9345, p 12).

On 19th November, Informant C9 sent another message to voters about her election programme. She said; “Satisfying all the stakeholders is an impossible mission. The ship of the homeland must sail. My election programme is my specialisation and focuses on Human Development and National Partnership” (Al

Ayam, 19th November 2014, No. 9355, p. 15).

Meanwhile, Informant C7 started her campaign from her slogan. She emphasised that she was contesting for the election to represent the people’s concerns. She states that; “I will carry the people’s concerns and represent the voters in Parliament” (Al Ayam, 6th November 2014, No. 9342, p. 11). In addition, on 17th

November, Informant C7 sent out a message about her confidence to win the election. She notes; “Boycott voters are not the majority in my constituency. My candidacy is for the homeland. I am confident that I will win” (Al Ayam, 17th

November 2014, No. 9352, p. 14).

Messages were also sent to stakeholders. For example, Informant C4 sent her message to economists through a column to tell the economists that she represents them. She said; “Economic [sic] is the lifeblood” (Al Ayam, 6th November 2014, No.

9342, p. 10). Informant C4 equally sent her message to the political societies and voters to tell them that she is an independent female candidate. She announced that;

“I am standing for election as an independent, to be away from any bargains and the compromising [sic] of the societies” (Al Ayam, 9th November 2014, No. 9345).

In an interview, Informant C10 stated that her chance of winning is good because she is supported by a political society which will enable her to combine

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various voters and orientations. She stated; “My chance is good, especially that I will be supported by (NUA) which represents the entire spectrum of society” (Al Ayam,

9th October 2014, No. 9313, p. 10). Informant C1 also focused on her slogan. She announced that she would stand for election. She focused on her slogan in an announcement thus; “My slogan in the election: we develop to advance” (Al Ayam,

29th October 2014, No. 9334, p. 13).

6.6.1 Targeting the Required Market

Almost all Informants used Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh, media (newspaper and social media) and conducted visits that targeted the various segments of voters to market their candidature. For example, old voters were targeted through newspapers; whereas young voters followed the social media. Male gatherings (male majlis) were also organised in separate rooms. Women voters were targeted and communicated to in their gathering places (women majlis). The informants also targeted the social figures and leaders of opinion. The two groups of targets; social figures and leaders of opinion provided recommendations to select the female candidates (Figure 6.8).

Figure 6.8: The Informants and targeting the voters

In Figure 6.8 above, data showed that four informants targeted old voters, six targeted young voters, three targeted male voters, four targeted female voters, and

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three targeted social media followers. Additionally, one informant targeted loyal and conservative voters, another one targeted social figures, two targeted the niche markets (special needs voters), and four targeted voters as mass markets.

6.6.1(a) Targeting Young Voters

Young people constitute the majority of the population in Bahrain. Targeting young people meant targeting most of the voters, including existing and potential voters.

This also includes young voters who attained the voting age stipulated by law, that is, those who will be 18 years old on the day of voting, and who can also vote in subsequent elections. Hence, most of the female candidates targeted this group of voters.

Data show that most of the informants targeted the young voters. Informant

C1 noted that she targeted the young voters through social media, especially

Instagram. She stated in Line 20 that; I communicated [with] the young people through social media. I identified their concerns. I used Instagram to communicate

[with] the young voters. Also, Informant C3 states that she targeted young voters, basically through columns she wrote in newspapers. She noted in Line 278 thus;

I targeted young voters, who were the biggest group in Bahrain. Parents who were concerned about their children futures [sic]. As I was young [sic] I was so close to young voters. When I targeted young voters, I tried to send a message that I [am] concern[ed] [about] their worries. I wrote many columns which [were] related to young people.

Informant C3 also contacted and targeted young voters using social media. She states in Line 291 that; Young people seldom attend in [sic] Al Khaimah Al

Intekhabyeh (electoral tent), they preferred Instagram. Likewise, Informant C4 met young voters in their places. She met them in playing fields and clubs. She states in

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Line 158 that; Meetings with young voters were on daily basis in electoral headquarters or men gathering places [sic] or wherever I found them such as playing fields.

Informant C4 distributed her image and brochures to young voters. She notes in Line 174 that; I printed my image, name and slogan on hats. I took these hats with me to playing fields and distributed to young people who were playing. Informant C7 targeted the young voters too because she felt that being of the same age bracket with the young voters, she could communicate with them easily, and understand their needs and wants. Hence, Informant C7 states in Line 34 that; Communicating [with] young voters was easier being in [sic] same age of mine and I could understand their needs.

Similarly, Informant C8 targeted young voters. She visited their places of gathering and experienced some difficulties in communicating with them due to the nature of her job. She targeted this segment of voters after some procedures so that she can catch up with them as a population. She states in Line 185 that; There were also the Majlis (gathering place) of young people. If fact [sic], I was embarrassed to visit men in Majlis to reach this group of voters. I think that this feeling of embarrassment came from being a doctor of women and all my patients were women.

However, Informant C9 hired young people in her campaign team to contact the young voters. She states in Line 58 that; During the election, there were more than 1,200 followers, which was good being the first time I established my account on Instagram. Facebook and Twitter were almost the same number of followers. I had [a] working team of young people. That was my answer for your question about my strategy to communicate [with] young people. Reaching young people can be

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only through the young people. Young people of [sic] my working team were in charge to discuss young voters and they conducted dialogs and answered all the questions of their peers”.

6.6.1(b) Targeting old Voters

Most of the old voters were retirees. They preferred reading, specifically newspapers and following news of the election through Twitter. Data showed that 4 informants stated that they targeted old voters. Informant C1 mentioned that she targeted the old voters through newspapers. She also targeted the old voters through Twitter and male majlis. She states in Line 22 that;

I also identified the old voters’ concerns. Old voters preferred newspapers and Twitter to follow the news of election. I had visits especially for old voters… I visit to men were [sic] in their Majlis (male gathering places). Most of my visits to the men were during the evening.

Similarly, Informant C3 indicated that she targeted old voters. She found that old people preferred Al Khaimah Al Intekhabiyah and their gathering places such as male majlis. She states in Line 292 that; old voters preferred Al Khaimah Al

Intekhabiyah and I visited them in their gathering places (Mosques, Matams).

The subject of ramshackle houses was one of the topics that informants raised during their campaign programmes. Informant C3 targeted the voters, touching their needs for housing and wrote a column about the problem of ramshackle houses (Al

Ayam, 9 September 2014, No, 9283).

Informant C6 used “role play” strategy to talk to the old voters. She talked to the old voters the way she talked to her father. She notes in Line 154 that; I talked to old people who were in my father[‘s] age in [the] same language that I used to

[speak to] my father.

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Informant C8 found that though old voters used social media, they prefer to see picture, banner and images. She states in Line 97 that; See. Old voters used social media, but they preferred following the election activities from newspapers. Old voters would like to see pictures, images and banners.

6.6.1(c) Targeting male Voters

The male community is segregated from women’s in Bahrain. Men gather in places where it is culturally unacceptable for women to access. Hence, meeting men in their places was one of the challenges that the informants faced. However, the informants targeted male voters by visiting their communities. Still, it was a problem for most of them. Data showed that three informants targeted men. Informant C1 targeted men at their places of gathering such as Majlis and sea shores. To satisfy their needs during the meetings, she met the male voters at their locations. She states in Line 24 that;

I [paid] visits to [the] men [who] were in their Majlis [male gathering places]. Most of my visits to the men were during the evening[s]. Also, I visited men at [the] sea shore where they gather. So, I communicated [to] each group of voters based on the preferences of their concerns and communication tool.

Also, Informant C4 indicated that she met male voters at their places of gathering. She notes in Line 142 that; Also, I had visited Al Buolochi Majlis, which was for men gathering. In this meeting in Al Buolochi Majlis, I went with my campaign manager. Additionally, Informant C9 targeted male voters in their places.

She states in Line 32 that; I identified these segments of voters during my visits to majlis (male gathering places) and [during] my discussion[s] individually and in groups.

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6.6.1(d) Targeting Women Voters

Women voters represent almost 50% of the total number of voters in Bahrain. Hence, the informants worked hard to ensure that women voters were on their side.

Therefore, the informants targeted female voters and data showed that four of the informants targeted female voters. Informant C1 for example, visited female voters in their places of gathering. She indicates in Line 23 that; I had also covered women.

So, I had visits to women. I visited women in the morning and evening.

Informant C4 used meeting to target female voters at her campaign headquarters. She states in Line 160 that; Meeting with female voters took place in my electoral headquarters or one of the voters’ houses. On 21st November 2014,

Informant C4 also sent a message through Al Ayam to target women voters. The objective was to motivate them to vote for her. She wrote a column on page 13 stating that; “Bahraini women made a positive model in the development of their homeland [and] may not be failing to participate in the election” (Al Ayam, 21

November 2014, No. 9357). The column of Informant C4 was based on a seminar conducted for the election. Informant C4 made a case for the women and their duty to participate in the election. This was how Informant C4 targeted women to vote for her in the election.

Informant C7 also said that she targeted female voters by communicating with them separately at their places of gathering. She states in Line 33 that; There were female voters. I targeted them separately. Also, I had male voters. I targeted them also [sic] separately.

However, Informant C8 adopted a different strategy. She met male and female voters separately. Then, she met male and female voters together. She states this in Line 79; My meetings with the voters were as the following [sic]; first, times

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for women and times mixed men and women [sic]. Second, in some meeting[s], I gave speeches and in some meetings; I invited social figures to give speech and manage the meeting on debate basis [sic].

Also, Informant C10 targeted women in her constituency. She sent messages to women and the people who lived in Hamad Town in the Shamalyeh Governorate.

The message from Informant C10 states that; “After the Political Empowerment

Programme, women chances are [sic] increased. A female representative in

Parliament is needed to represent Hamad Town” (Akhabr Al Khaleej, 18th November

2014, No. 13388, p. 10).

6.6.1(e) Targeting Voters who Follow Social Media

Targeting voters on demographic basis was not the only campaign strategy that the female candidates applied. They also targeted the voters who followed social media applications. Data show that three informants targeted social media followers.

Informant C1 targeted voters based on the communication tools they used. She notes in Line 21 that;

I used Instagram to communicate [with] the young voters. I also identified the old voters’ concerns. Old voters preferred newspapers and Twitter to follow the news of election. I had visits especially for old voters. I had also covered women. So, I had visits to women. I visited women in the morning and evening. I [paid] visit[s] to men were in their Majlis (men gathering places). Most of my visits to the men were in the evening. Also, I visited men at the sea shore where they gather.

Similarly, Informant C3 targeted social media users to communicate to her target voters. She states in Line 296 that;

I used Twitter, but Instagram was more popular for young people… for example, I wrote a title and linked it with other experience on video. For example, the Turkey experience. I used links to YouTube. People interact with my posts on Instagram. They gave me feedback.

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Also, Informant C8 used social media followers to target the voters. Most of her social media followers were young. Hence, the Informant targeted these segment of social media users. She notes in Line 84 that; Twitter, Instagram and Facebook; these applications of social media were full of discussions and dialogs of audiences about the election. I targeted these applications to post, advertise and discuss.

6.6.1(f) Targeting Loyal and Hesitant Voters

Targeting loyal and hesitant voters was also a strategy applied by the informants.

Data showed that Informant C10 implemented strategies to target loyal voters and a different strategy to target hesitant voters. Informant C10 targeted loyal voters by inviting them to visit her tent. The voters who were with the competitor simply left them and she contacted them to persuade them to vote for her. She states this in Line

89;

We could divide them into three groups of voters; the voters who were with us. We invited voters of this group to our Al Khaimah Al Intekhabiyah (electoral tent). The voters who were not with us, we just ignored them. The third group was the voters who were conservatives [sic] or hesitated to vote for a certain candidate. We tried our best to convince them to be to [sic] our side.

6.6.1(g) Targeting Social Figures

Targeting was implemented in the first round of the election, but this strategy was used more in the second round by the informants. This strategy was clearer in the second round. Data showed that Informant C5 targeted social figures in the second round. Informant C5 said she targeted in Line 113 thus; had rule to facilitate my meetings with the people in the area. They stood with me which was kind of

“recommendation” to voters to select me. I targeted these figures first as voters and then as source of recommendations, or if you would like a “word of mouth”.

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6.6.1(h) Niche Markets

Wrong marketing is the marketing that ignores niche markets. However, as small number of voters, niche markets would make differences in vote shares. Niche markets were found in this study. They comprise voters who are suffering from autism and physically and mentally challenged ones. Data show that two informants targeted the niche markets. The informants were aware of these small markets.

Informant C2 states in Line 104 that; …I was trying to understand their behaviour to ensure that I could collect as many as possible of voters and maximise my vote share.

I was aware that the election faces boycott and one vote can make [a] difference.

Informant C3 who targeted those affected by autism stated that she communicated to them through their parents to identify their needs. Here, Informant

C3 notes in Line 93 that; In some cases, I communicated [with] them through telephone calls. For example, I had a case of autisms, I communicated [with] her mother. From this phone call, I found that there were more cases of autisms. [So], I met them and knew their needs.

Informant C4 also targeted physically or mentally challenged voters. She provided wheel chairs to transport them to the poll center. She notes in Line 412 that;

I used cars to transport the voters to the polling centers. Also, I had wheel chairs for disabled voters.

6.6.1(i) Mass Market

Targeting the voters was based on the voters’ segmentation. However, the informants indicated that when they segmented and targeted the voters; they dealt with the voters as mass markets in their tents during the election campaigns. Informant C1

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states that she found difficulties to send her message to the voters as one market. She stated in Line 197 that;

It was not [an] easy task. To deal with varied groups of voters in one place at the same time with the same speech was not easy. I sent my messages to them all as one market. But, what I have done was targeted [sic] the middle group of voters to make my speech understood.

Informant C6 also dealt with the voters as one market. She justified her strategy that the voters (old, young, male and female) have common concerns. Thus, she dealt with them as one market. She notes in Line 155 that; There were many things in common with young people, old people, and women and divorced.

Informant C8 also dealt with the voters in the same age as one market. She states in Line 99 that; what I did was that I dealt with all groups of ages. In the case of Informant C9, she also dealt with all groups of voters as one market in her tent.

She indicates in Line 66 that; I communicated [with] this group of voters in my electoral tent. In fact, my electoral tent was not for the old and retired people only, but I communicated [with] all the groups of voters.

6.7 Political Communication

The informants used communication tools to send their messages to voters. The following account discusses three types of communication; interactive communication such as Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh, meeting voters outside the tents and visiting male majlis. Also, there was one-way communication; such as posters and banners, newspaper, word-of-mouth, and SMS. Moreover, the informants equally used social media applications such as Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp,

Facebook, YouTube and websites.

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The informants used these tools for different reasons. First, they used the communication tools to interact and send messages to voters. Secondly, these tools were distribution channels that the informants used to distribute their products.

Thirdly, the informants used these tools to position their brands and products. Hence, the communication tools were used for many purposes by the informants during their campaigns.

Data show that three techniques were used during interactive communication; tent (Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh), meeting voters and visiting majlis. Eight informants state that they used Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh, six informants conducted meetings and interviews with voters, while four informants visited male majlis.

One-way communication enabled the informants to send their messages through newspapers, posters, banners, word of mouth and advertisement. Through one-way communication, the female candidates sent messages, but did not receive feedback from voters. They also used one-way communication to avoid embarrassments. It also allowed the informants to hide any weaknesses in their personalities. Ten of the informants indicated that they used posters and banners; five used newspapers to send their messages; five used word-of-mouth; and four used

SMS.

Additionally, social media applications were part of the political communication channels used by the informants because social media is popular among young people in Bahrain and young voters form most of Bahrain’s population. Social media applications like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube were used by the informants to communicate with their voters.

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Data showed that nine of the informants used Instagram; seven used Twitter; three used WhatsApp; three broadcasted videos on YouTube; while one informant said that she had a website (Figure 6.9).

Figure 6.9: Informants and the three types of communication

6.7.1 Interactive Communication

Three tools were used by the informants for interactive communication; Al

Kahaimah Al Intekhabyeh (the tent), meeting the voters and visiting male majlis.

These three tools were the most used by the informants, and by other competitors.

Eight informants stated that they used Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh to communicate to their voters. Six increased their communication with their voters to

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meet the voters out of Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh such as the playing fields and voters’ residences. Four indicated that they communicated with male voters at the voters’ places. These places of communication were not only to communicate with voters, but to also serve as distribution channels, where the informants presented and distributed materials containing their electoral programmes to present themselves to voters and persuade them to vote for them (Figure 6.10).

Figure 6.10 Informants and interactive communication

6.7.1(a) Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh (Tent)

The tents (Al Khaimah Al Intekhabiyah) were the Bedouins living quarters in the deserts. Al Khaimah Al Intekhabiyah was used as a house for Bedouins. In the modern day, the Bedouins changed their life style and built houses. However, they are still fond of their tents. Hence, Arabs specifically the GCC people used Al

Khaimah on many occasions such as marriage parties, funerals and other social occasions. During elections, candidates used Al Khaimah Al Intekhabiyah as headquarters and as meeting points with voters. Female candidates used various tools to position their products. Al Khaimah Al Intekhabiyah was the main communication

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tool and distribution platform that the female candidates used in their election campaigns.

Data show that eight of the informants used Tents (Al Khaimah Al

Intekhabiyah) to communicate with voters, to send their messages and distribute their products. Plate 6.5 illustrated a small and big Khaimah for election erected in a constituency. The use of Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh is a tradition in Bahrain and its neighbour like Kuwait for campaign during elections.

Plate 6.5: Small and big tents (Khaimah Intekhabyeh) Source: Al Ayam, 8 November 2014, No. 9344

Data equally show that almost all the informants used Al Khaimah Al

Intekhabyeh as one of the communication tools. Informant C2 indicated that she did not erect a tent to communicate with her voters. Also, Informant C7 did not mention that she used a tent.

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However, Informant C1 states in Line 181 that in Al Khaimah Al

Intekhabyeh, she could interact with visitors and voters to receive comments and encouragements. She said; In the media coverage during my campaign, I received some comments such as “your appearance is nice, and we would like to cover your campaign”.

Similarly, Informant C3 stated in Line 183 that;

My Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh (electoral tent) was full of varied kinds of voters; Sunni, Shi’a, Wahabis (Salafists), and foreigners who [were] married to Bahrainis [sic] voters. Americans also attended [the] Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh. Also, I had Bahrainis who gained the[ir] citizenship recently. I worked to satisfy the needs [of] all these groups of audiences. So, I needed to balance debates with the two groups; who were with [me] and [those who] were against [me]. I received direct questions such as: what are you going to do with the naturalisation issue? How you are [sic] going to deal with it? However, I had the answer of such question; I ignored them to not influence my campaign.

Salafists are extreme fundamentalists Muslims who follow documented

Hadeeth (saying) and Sunna (practices) of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in his life. They follow the life style of the followers of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).

On the contrary, informant C5 states in Line 45 that she encountered some aggressive behaviour from voters during her election campaign. According to her; I met aggressive behaviour from some voters, but on the other side I had civilised dialogue with the others. Also, Informant C6 noted in Line 228 that; In my election campaign, I faced attacks from audiences. This attack was not directed at me, but audiences saw the former PMs in me.

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Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh was one of the favourite for the voters among all the communication tools. Plate 6.6 illustrated a candidate’s Khaimah, which provided buffet dinner to attract voters.

Plate 6.6: Inside Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh Source: Al Ayam, 8 November 2014, No. 9344

To provide reachable service, some of the informants provided two tents

(Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh) in two different places in their constituencies to make her services available and contact with voters easier. In Line 95, Informant C5 states that;

I used Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh (electoral tent). I had erected two tents in my constituency, so voters could reach them easily. One of these tents was erected in Al Losey next to roundabout 4 and the other next to roundabout 14. I think I was the only candidate that erected 2 tents.

Furthermore, Informant C6 noted that people like to visit big tents with meals. So, some candidates provided meals after the candidate’s speech to instead of discussing the candidate’s electoral programmes. She states in Line 42 that; If you visit a candidate in his/her small tent and visit another candidate in his/her big tent.

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In the big tent, you would find it full of people, have big TV screens and you would find buffet. Then you can tell the difference.

Informant C4 also used two Khaimah. The is contained in her statement in Line

31;

My constituency had a mix of voters. The constituency was part from Riffa, Sanad, Newedrat and Maameer. This constituency was ramified and [had] varied ideologies and sub-cultures. Thus, I established two electoral headquarters; in Riffa and the other Newedrat.

The informants, in their meeting with audiences needed to answer the questions from their audiences. Voters evaluated the candidates in these meetings.

Hence, the informants invited social figures to give speeches in their Khaimah to minimise threats or any embarrassing situation.

6.7.1(b) Meeting Voters

The data showed that six of the informants used other techniques to meet the voters, such as meeting them in other places. In these meetings, informants discussed with the voters, face to face or in groups.

Visiting voters was one of the interactive communication tools that were used by informants. The informants visited voters in their houses and interacted with them in two forms; meeting individuals and meeting the whole family. For example, an informant said she conducted visits to families as one of her communication tools.

According to Informant C2 in Line 234; They mostly were the means, besides visiting families and one-to-one visit. Also, Informant C3 states in Line 93 that;

I communicated [with] them through telephone calls. For example, I had a case of autism; I communicated [with] her mother. From this phone call, I found that there were more cases of autisms. I met them and knew their needs.

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Also, Informant C4 said in Line 68 that;

…my campaign in my constituency was not to persuade people to vote for me, but to persuade them to vote for women. Then, I had to persuade them to vote for me. It was not [an] easy mission as you see. Since I started my election campaign until the last night before election, I had meetings, discussions and seminars with the voters.

Informant C5 also said in Line 43 that; In the second round, I visited all the voters’ houses and met all the voters individually. It was not [an] easy task to meet all voters individually, but I did it. Besides that, the informants used meetings as a technique to persuade the voters to elect them. It was also used to strengthen their relationships with the voters. During their visits, the informants answered questions from voters.

Informant C8 stated she increased her visits to families and voters in the second round. She stated in Line 253 that;

A voter came to me to tell me that he and his wife would vote for me, but his mother would vote for the other candidate because he paid for her. He asked me to meet his mother to persuade her to vote for me. When I visited her in her house, she remembered that I was her doctor who treated her few years ago. She voted for me.

In Line 32, Informant C9 explained how she also visited places of gatherings to meet with male voters. She states; I identified these segments of voters during my visits to Majlis (male gatherings) and my discussion individually, and in groups.

6.7.1(c) Visiting male Community (Majlis)

In Bahrain, it is unacceptable for women to visit male communities, especially the male majlis, the place where the men gather and discuss many issues on: sports, social issues, business, economic and political issues. However, some of the

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informants broke from tradition and visited male communities during election campaigns where they presented their programmes and discussed their strategies.

As illustrated in Plate 6.7, two informants gave their speeches at male majlis in the presence of men and women voters. Two speakers also participated in the informants’ campaigns.

Plate 6.7: Two female candidates give speeches at male majlis Source: Entikhabat 2014 Account

Data showed that four of the informants visited male majlis, a community that women are not culturally allowed to visit. Therefore, some informants went against this cultural taboo to present their programmes. For example, Informant C1 visited male gatherings to present her programme and discuss her campaign. She states in Line 24 that; I [paid a] visit to men [who] were in their majlis [male places of gathering]. Most of my visits to the men were during the evening[s]. Similarly,

Informant C4 states in Line 142 that; Also, I had visited Al Buolochi Majlis, which was for men gathering [sic]. In this meeting in Al Buolochi Majlis I went with my

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campaign manager. Most voters were so kind and nice, but the awareness of election needs sometime”.

Informant C8 also visited men in their gathering. She selected the playing field where the men engage in sporting activities. She states in Line 188 that;

My constituency had many clubs for young people who were the main supporter to [sic] my campaign but communicating [with] them was hard. I took a [sic] permission of the owner of one of these men Majlis to meet this group – young people and talk to them. She agreed. So, I went with my husband and group of my family to meet this group of voters.

Also, Informant C9 conducted visits to male majlis. She notes this in Line 32 thus; I identified these segments of voters during my visits to majlis (male gathering places) and my discussion individually and in groups”.

6.7.2 One-Way Communication

Data showed that the informants also used one-way communication. In this type of communication, the informants sent their messages to voters, but they did not receive any feedback from the voters. The informants used posters, banners, newspapers, word-of-mouth and SMS. When using each of these tools of communication, the informants sent certain messages. For example, in posters and banners, informants situated their names, images, slogans, the Governorates, the constituencies and their contact numbers. The posters were located on banners, social media, bill boards, walls, and newspapers.

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Data equally show that all the informants designed their posters and banner.

Five of them indicated that they sent their messages through newspapers; five used word-of-mouth; and four said that they communicated with their voters via SMS

(Figure 6.11).

Figure 6.11: The informants and one-way communication

6.7.2 (a) Posters and Banners

All the Informants said that they used posters and banners containing messages of their campaigns. Posters and banners of the informants appeared in almost the same format. The posters and banners contain the images of the informants, names, the constituency and contact numbers.

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The informants distributed their posters and banners everywhere among their constituents. The posters were small, and their placements among other candidates’ posters made it difficult to be noticed. This is illustrated in Plate 6.8 where one of the female candidates located her poster on a street pavement.

Plate 6.8: Poster of a female candidate on the street Source: Al Ayam, 7 November 2014, No. 9343

Meanwhile, another informant situated her poster at the corner of a wall of a house in her constituency (Plate 6.9). The informant placed the posters on two sides of a wall so that the posters can be observed by voters from both sides.

Plate 6.9: Poster of a female candidate on a wall Source: Al Ayam, 8 November 2014, No. 9343

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In addition, data show that all the informants designed their posters and banners, mostly containing their slogans, images, constituencies, blocks in the constituencies, contact numbers, and details of social media accounts.

Informant C3 designed her poster to focus on her career. She sent a message indicating that she is a journalist. She states this in Line 283; In my posters, I mentioned that I am journalist. [In] the first advertisement, I mentioned that I am a journalist. Informant C2 also selected an image that showed that she is young. She notes this in Line 45; My appearance in posters and images showed that I was younger…

Similarly, the informants used posters and banners to extend their product and sent messages to their voters. Informant C8 states in Line 53 that; We made brochures, banners and we advertised in newspapers. Sadly, some of the informants’ banners were burnt. For example, informant C6 states in Line 290 that; My banners have been ruined. My husband and advertisement company repaired them after they were ruined. Next day all banners were repaired, and people did not notice that my banners were ruined. Other candidates left their banners broken and ruined… They meant to put the accident in newspaper to attract attention of voters.

Similarly, Informant C8 states in Line 396 that; There were many of my banners that [were] ruined where [sic] the other competitor’s banners which were closed to my banners were not. What does this mean? My banners were burned; the other[s] were not. If it was not sabotage, then what would be?”.

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6.7.2(b) Newspapers

Sending messages through newspapers was to target voters who read newspapers. Most of the informants used newspapers to send their messages to voters. Data showed that their visibility in the newspapers was insufficient to introduce them to voters or to convey their messages. Only one of the informants flooded the newspapers with images, news, and posters that introduced her to the voters and made her messages reach targeted voters. Most of the informants conveyed few messages through newspapers. Some informants located their images, posters, advertisements and announcements on small newspaper spaces. Such placements are difficult for the voters to observe. Whereas, one of the informants placed her messages on the first page, using large and bold adverts on full pages in three newspapers across three days of a week. This quantity and quality of items gave her visibility and the chance to be noticed by voters.

One of the informants was nominated by a political society. She represented the political society in the parliamentary election. The political society advertised for its nominated candidates in Municipal and Parliamentary elections. The society advertised for its nominees in newspapers. To reduce cost of the campaign, the society used one advertisement for all its nominees. The advertisement of the political society contains seven parliamentary election candidates and seven municipal election candidates. All these 14 candidates appeared in one advertisement.

A poster of the National Unity Assembly (NUA) was situated in newspapers with the name of the society, statement of the society (we have our requirements).

On the top part, the seven candidates of parliament appeared. In the middle, voters were situated with placards carrying some slogans such as “empowering women in

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decision making” and “fight the corruption”. At the bottom, the advertisement contained photographs of 7 candidates vying for the Municipal elections (Plate 6.10).

Plate 6.10: Poster of group of nominated candidates of NUA Source: Al Ayam, 8 November 2014, No. 9354

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Data also showed that five of the informants used newspapers to convey their messages to voters. The informant agreed that newspapers were an important communication tool to send their messages to voters. Informant C2 used newspapers to communicate with voters using data of her market research that identified the voters who read newspaper. She used newspapers to target this group of voters. She states in Line 67 that;

…the last month before the election, I started to use a full page in three local newspapers after I conducted a market research. I found that in my constituency, there were 70% of the people [who] read Al Wasat, 20% read Al Ayam and 10% read Akhbar Al Khaleej newspaper. It was very important to know your market. It is very important to know the channels that enable you to reach the voters and to send your messages.

Informant C3 said based on her relationship with writers and columnists in newspapers, she could advertise in newspapers. According to her in Line 50; My relationship in media also served me. I was known to all writers and columnists of the newspapers. They allowed me to use the newspapers to advertise for free.

Informant C3 adds in Line 236 that; I used newspapers for my advertisements about the election. Also, Informant C4 noted in Line 190 that she used newspapers to cover her campaign thus; I was available in classical media such as TV, newspapers and in modern media as social media in advertisement. I paid the newspapers for my advertisements. In [the] newspapers, I had to cover my election campaign. I had to write my election campaign coverage.

However, Informant C7 indicates from the beginning of the interview that she did not engage in political campaign. She states that she used newspapers in the last few days before election where she noted in Line 60 that;

It was only in the last week [that] I advertised in a newspaper. Despite that, I did not believe in advertisements, but I did it. I did this because voters wanted to see the candidate they would select. Thus, I advertised in newspapers and only for three days before the election started.

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6.7.2(c) Word-of-Mouth

‘Word-of-mouth’ is a technique that needs the existence of a good relationship to expand the candidate’s chances. It also required voters to have positive experience of the candidates to be recommended. If people are satisfied of a product, they recommend it to family and friends. The informants said they used word-of-mouth to expand their products. Those who used word-of-mouth used their friends who were outside their constituencies.

The data showed that five of the informants used word-of-mouth to expand their product and brand. Word of mouth required that the female candidates have good relations with the people who would recommend her to the voters. For example, Informant C2 states that the people who are not from the constituency would recommend her to the voters who are in her constituency. She notes in Line 72 that; …this was a kind of trustiness and truthfulness of the candidate …I focused also on the people out of my constituency. The purpose of this strategy was that the people who were not in my constituency would persuade the people in my constituency.

Informant C5 used social figures to recommend her to voters. Informant C5 states in Line 113 that; Social figures had role to facilitate my meetings with the people in the area. They stood with me which was kind of “recommendation” to voters to select me. I targeted these characters first as voters and then as source of recommendations, or if you would like a “word-of-mouth”.

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6.7.2(d) Short Message Services (SMS)

Informants used SMS, popularly known as text messages to communicate with voters. Text messages are short messages. Hence, the informants used this tool of communication to invite their voters or the audiences to attend meetings.

Data show that the informants used SMS to communicate with voters. Four of the informants used SMS to communicate with their voters. Informant C10 stated that SMS was used on the day of polling to motivate voters to come to vote in Line

56; On the day of election, we used SMS to motivate voters to vote. Informant C8 also used SMS for those voters who did not use social media platforms like

WhatsApp. According to Informant C8 in Line 75; I used text messages to communicate [with] the voters who did not use WhatsApp.

6.7.3 Social Media

Social media is one of the most popular medium of communication among young people. They used it to communicate with their families, friends and businesses acquaintances (Figure 6.12).

Figure 6.12: The informants and social media 228

The informants were aware of the importance of social media to youth as nine of them used Instagram; seven used Twitter; three used WhatsApp and Facebook, while three appeared in YouTube videos.

Interestingly, all the informants agree that the most influential social media tool during the election was Instagram. In Bahrain and the GCC, Instagram is used for advertisements of dishes, bags, and fashion, travel, and so on. All the informants targeted Instagram users to communicate with voters, because the users were young people.

Groups of users on social media established accounts to advertise for the candidates. The informants joined these groups to advertise about their campaigns.

Some of these groups were advertised for the informants for free to help and support them to position and distribute their products while some were paid. As illustrated in

Plate 6.11 below, a group of Entikhabat (elections) on Instagram posted a message for a female candidate. Plate 6.11 presents two female candidates; a candidate for the municipal and the other parliamentary elections, whose photos were posted on the

Entikhabat 2014 Account.

Plate 6.11: Account of a group on Instagram posted message of two female candidates Source: Entikhabat 2014 Account

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Data also show that nine of the informants state that they used Instagram to send their messages to voters. Most of the informants agree that the most influential communication tool was Instagram. For example, Informant C1 notes in Line 58 that; I will tell you two of these channels. I used Instagram to target young people and [for] visiting the gathering places for old people.

Similarly, Informant C2 states in Line 233 that; To communicate [with] people, I used newspaper and social media; Instagram and Twitter. Also, Informant

C3 said in Line 62 that; I established my account on Instagram. I added all followers, so I had followers on Instagram. In Line 290, Informant C3 states that Instagram was the most influential tool that she used to communicate with young voters. She states that; Instagram was the most influential communication tool I used in my election campaign. Young people seldom attend in Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh

(electoral tent), they preferred Instagram.

Additionally, Informant C6 got feedback through Instagram. Informant C6 states in Line 102 that; My slogan “participate to change” had big echo which could be noticed on my account in Instagram. One of the problems that an informant faced was poaching of one of the voter mobilisers, who oversaw the social media.

Informant C8 expresses such a problem in Line 99 thus;

The problem was that the person who was in charge of social media was bought by [an]other candidate. I confirmed this when I found that this person did not post any news or activities about my campaign on social media for more than three days… Unfortunately, I found [out about] this problem too late… It was so critical; three days in my election campaign, the same time he was posting for my competitor.

Twitter also allows users more space to discuss and argue with their followers.

Twitter is also another social medium used by young people in Bahrain. Hence, the informants used this tool to send their messages. Data showed that seven of the

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informants state that they communicated with voters through Twitter. Informant C2 used Twitter to communicate with voters according to her statement in Line 233 thus;

To communicate [with] people, I used newspapers and social media; Instagram and

Twitter in particular”. Also, Informant C3 noted that she used Twitter to target the young voters. She noted this in Line 296 that; I used Twitter, but Instagram was more popular for young people. Informant C4 also had accounts of Twitter too, which she activated for election campaign purposes. She states in Line 198 that; I had an account on Twitter; I did not use my account before election as I did in [sic] election.

Similarly, Informant C9 established her account on Twitter for the purpose of the election too. She said in Line 56 that; I established an account on Twitter,

WhatsApp and Instagram. Therefore, Informant C9 collected followers on several social media platforms as stated in Line 85 thus;

I did not stop posting my activities and programmes of the training courses that I provided. During the election, there were more than 1,200 followers, which was good being the first time I establish[ed] my account on Instagram. Facebook and Twitter had almost the same number of the followers. I had [a] working team of young people.

Informant C8 was supported by a group on Twitter. The group advertised for her as states in Line 76 thus; Also, I was supported by (Al Farooq Group) on Twitter.

Such groups were paid and some of them volunteers [sic]. Informant C8 also stated, in Line 89 that; Twitter gave her feedback and she found it to be more interactive.

According to her; Twitter was the most interactive application. That was what we found through the voters’ interaction in [sic] social media.

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However, Informant C8 was attacked and harassed by some people who used abusive language on Twitter as notes in Line 399 thus: They were using bad and dirty words in [sic] Twitter.

Meanwhile, Informant C10 mentioned that she used social media and that all the communication tools were important. She did not want to underestimate any of the campaign tools. She stated in Line 38 that; There were many ways; face-to-face meetings, SMS, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. We used all the communication tools to communicate [with] the voters”.

WhatsApp is described as personal communication tool where individuals exchange private and social messages. WhatsApp can also be used for group communications. Data show that three of the informants say that they used WhatsApp to communicate with voters personally or within groups on WhatsApp to extend their products.

Informant C5 used WhatsApp to communicate with voters as states by her on

Line 65 thus: I identified my working team. My team communicated [with] the voters through WhatsApp and Instagram”.

Some voters did not use WhatsApp to follow election news. Hence, informants communicated with voters through some other tools. Informant C8 notes in Line 75 that; I used text messages to communicate [with] the voters who did not use

WhatsApp. Informant C9 described WhatsApp as a personal communication tool, which had direct impact on voters. According to her, in Line 76;

In my electoral tent, I received praises and encouragement messages from audiences. These two platforms – I used to send my messages to voters. Then WhatsApp comes after the two platforms. WhatsApp was so personal. It gave direct influence and interaction between me and the other party.

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Facebook was also used by the informants during the election campaigns. Data showed that three informants used Facebook to communicate with voters. Informant

C4 used social media such as Twitter and Facebook before election to expand her product. She states in Line 186 that; Before election, I used social media such as

Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. During the election I was more active to the extent that when I go to any activity or place I post comments about my events on social media.

Informant C8 believes that social media increased interaction between voters and their candidates as conveyed in Line 84 thus; Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

These applications of social media were full of discussions and dialogues of audiences about the election. I targeted these applications to post, advertise and discuss.

Meanwhile, Informant C10 did not prioritise one channel of communication with voters over the others. She states in Line 54 that; It is hard to underestimate any of the communication tools. But I think that Facebook had more influence than any other tools.

Additionally, YouTube was one of the social media that was used by some informants to send their messages to stakeholders. Using YouTube enabled the informants to position their brands and products, to send messages in motion and to distribute their products. Few of the informants were observed on YouTube during the election. Al Watan newspapers’ accounts on YouTube broadcasted videos of some of the female candidates who presented their strategies, election programme and how they would solve some issues affecting the voters. The presentation on

YouTube of Al Watan was on question and answer basis. The female candidates were

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asked few questions which they answered. Also, there were few female candidates who broadcast their meetings with voters during the election campaigns.

Three informants stated that they used YouTube in their election campaigns.

The informants introduced themselves and sent messages to voters through YouTube, which is one of the communication tools that some of the female candidates used in their campaigns (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f0Cnhtq9Is). On its account on YouTube, Al Watan also conducted interviews with some female candidates to present their election programmes (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1tbdmju7y8).

Informant C1 also published one of her videos on 28 November 2014 after the first round. In the video, one of the social figures could be seen giving a speech

)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVPsMCEqaS4). Informant C3 also broadcast a video on YouTube. But she was more visible on Instagram. This might be because many female candidates thought that YouTube was not as popular as Instagram. She said in Line 303 that; Yes true. On YouTube my apparent was not enough, but I used mostly Instagram.

In one of her videos, Informant C3 presented the “housing” topic in her election programme, which was states in Line 114; The most important thing was that when you appear in public you must persuade the voters that you recommend solutions for their problems. For example, I focused on the housing problem in my speeches in YouTube. Informant C4 also indicates that she used YouTube to send her messages and communicate with voters. This was states in Line 226 thus; Yes. There was YouTube which I [used] to broadcast all my meetings and seminars.

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Only one of the informants said that she had a website, where she published all her activities including the Parliament’s. Informant C2 stated in Line 234 that;

Moreover, I had a website.

In sum, the informants used traditional (newspapers) and modern communication (social media) tools to position their products and brands, to communicate with their voters, to send their messages to their voters and distribute their brands and products.

6.7.4 Political Branding

The informants used brands to expand their products rather than a product itself.

They experienced challenges resulting from the influence of masculinity and tribalism in some constituencies. Hence, they activated their relations to enable them to distribute their products (election programmes, slogans, posters and banners).

The informants implemented another technique to expand their product. They created brands to position their product. They used various brands based on some criteria not related to the election such as the name of their families, their business and their professions. Six of the informants stated that their professions was a brand for their campaigns; five used women values as brand; two used their family names as brand; and one used her business as brand for the election campaign (Figure 6.13 overleaf).

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Figure 6.13: Informants and branding

Creating brand for the informants allowed them to stand for the next election.

Establishing brand requires stating a mission, vision and objectives. The informants used brands, but their branding was unplanned. Data showed that six of the informants used their profession as brand in their election campaigns. In Line 47,

Informant C2 stated that; I focused on my contribution in career in employment and coaching and the way I was doing marketing myself. Similarly, Informant C5 said in

Line 71 that; When I started my campaign, there were not less than 500 people who knew that I worked in [the] Ministry of Health. There were doctors, cleaners, labor[er]s, nurses and technicians who worked with me in the hospital. They all knew me very well. Also, Informant C7 stated in Line 49 that; Of course, there were some voters [who] selected me because of my electoral programme, and my profession. Equally, Informant C8 used her profession (doctor) to brand herself.

According to her in Line 285;

Before [the] election, the people who knew me; they knew me as a doctor, now they know me as a parliament[ary] candidate, also as a politician. I entered many houses of voters who knew my personality. I recently presented programmes and interviews. I posted on social media 236

about the successful surgeries I had done. I continuously communicate[d] [with] people. I am a member in professional and social societies… All these social, political, voluntary and academic activities created my brand if I decide to stand for election in the future.

Similarly, Informant C9 used her career as a brand. She states in Line 136 that; In my whole career life and my experience, there was my brand which could easily tell about who was (….). I had my mark in Bahrain and GCC; Bahrain, Saudi

Arabia, Kuwait. (...) was [a] known name. I had my students who came from everywhere.

Some of the informants also focused on the performance of women in the legislature as a brand identity. Some of them stated that presenting them as a product was to represent women. Hence, creating a female brand could be related to feminine values. Data showed that three of the informants were aware of the importance of brands. However, their brands were not planned or formed in a way to serve their campaigns. Informant C6 was aware of the importance of creating a brand.

Unfortunately, the informant could not create her brand based on the women parliament members’ (PM) performance. She comments thus in Line 123; I really missed the idea of being [sic] women are better than men in parliament to create a brand for my product based on the women PMs performance in Parliament.

Informant C8 also used the attributes of femininity such as commitment to her work and responsibilities to create her brand. She notes in Line 233 that;

But what was clear for voters [was] that I was committed to fulfil my promises of housing, health, education and improve[d] living. If I could not fulfil my promises, I would be honest and tell you the truth that I could not do it. I think that this slogan does not belong to Wafa in her election campaign, but it was a slogan of all women. Women are more committed than men are. Thus, the slogan I used represented women more than Wafa Ajoor”.

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Furthermore, Informant C7 mentioned that women were aware about their rights and achievements. This awareness could be used to create brand for her campaign. She notes in Line 168 that; Bahraini women are strong and aware of all their achievements. I think these achievements motivate them to take the responsibility to stand for election.

As mentioned in the findings on culture, Bahrain is collectivist in nature.

People know each other or at least know the big families or the families who have lived in Bahrain for decades. There were some families which were very well known in the society. Thus, two of the informants used their family names as brands to attract voters. For example, Informant C6 states in Line 34 that;

Let me tell you something. My name was known; my family also was known. But for me, my name was not known as my sisters’. For me I considered myself as not known. That was because of my work, which was different than my sisters’. All of my sisters were known in poems and writing.

Hence Informant C7 noted that she used the name of her family to extend her brand. She states in Line 47 that; If I said that voters voted for my personality, I meant that those voters selected me because they knew me and knew my family.

One of the informants also had her own business. She was known to the society in general and voters based on her business. She used her business brand to expand her product. Informant C9 stated in Line 141 that her training center was known for her clients. Therefore, her business name became a brand for her in the elections. She states thus;

I worked at (University…), (Bahrain…), and I gave training courses in my institutions. All these activities created my brand. “…….” is known institution. Thus, my brand was my name. When students came to Bahrain, they looked for (Dr……). This brand had good effect on the voters. There were many voters who commented that the smile of (Dr...) was a source of optimism that she would serve our country.

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In sum, using brands for the informants showed that the informants were aware about the importance of branding. The informants used brands that were not related to the election. They used brands based on their social positions.

6.7.5 Introducing Product

Most of the informants agreed that voters needed to experience the product. Thus, voters should meet, see and talk to the candidates. One of the most important issues that introduced political product to voters is that the candidate should appear in public and present herself to voters.

6.7.5 (a) Appearance of the Female Candidate

Customers like to experience the product they want to buy. Voters also, like to see and communicate with the candidates. Appearing in media and in public introduces the candidate to his/her voters.

The study conducted interviews to explore the political marketing strategies used by informants. To cover the scene from different angle, the study implemented triangulation strategy. Hence, newspapers, social media and posters were analysed to observe the informants’ appearance in media and in public. Slogans, advertisements, images were coded and categorised and given names.

Introducing the product is a very important stage of the product life cycle

(PLC). Organisations spend a lot of money on advertisements, discounts and offers to introduce a product to customers. Similarly, introducing the candidates to voters should include public and media appearances. In the event of a failure to do so, the voters would not know such a candidate. Therefore, the informants needed to persuade voters about their products. In presenting themselves as political products,

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informants should use several communication tools. Appearance in media and in public is one of several very important tools for introducing the contestants

(informants) to their voters.

Data show that most of the informants did not introduce themselves sufficiently to voters through the media, especially in newspapers. The informants were aware of the importance of appearing in public and in the media. For example,

Informant C1 states in Line 40 that; Some other candidates started their campaigns earlier through appearing in newspapers and announcements. For me, I started late.

This of course minimised the chance to introduce myself to voters. We started our electoral campaign after the campaigning is officially announced. Informant C1 also comments somewhere else in Line 169 that;

…I had attended [workshops] at SCW with many of [sic] female candidates. We were advised to be appeared [sic] in media. We lacked apparent in media and in public. Trainers in the workshops kept telling us to appear in public. It would allow people to know about you. Apparent does not mean to be visible in the press only, but also in public.

Data show that there were 1,190 items related to the parliamentary election were published in Akhbar Al Khaleej and Al Ayam in the period between September and December 2014. Items were collected and classified in categories; advertisements, news of the candidates, media coverage, caricatures and columns that were written by the candidates.

These 1,190 items were published in the two newspapers that covered all female candidates, including the informants who were not included in the sample of this study; as well as the male candidates and other organisations which were interested or involved in the election activities. There were 175 (14.71%) items of all the female candidates (22 female candidates) who stood for parliamentary election;

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520 (43.70%) items of male candidates related to the parliamentary election; and 495

(41.60%) of other organisations, such as the DER, newspaper columnists and caricatures, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Interior related to the parliamentary election (Figure 6.14).

Figure 6.14: Share of apparent of female candidates in Akhabr Al Khaleej and Al Ayam

As illustrated in Table 6.2 below, the total items related to the parliamentary election in Akhbar Al Khaleej and Al Ayam were 1,190. The female candidates appeared 175 times in columns, news, advertisements and media coverage. Male candidates appeared 520 times and other organisations published 495 times.

Table 6.2: Share of female candidates’ items in Akhbar Al Khaleej and Al Ayam Items related to parliamentary election Female Candidates 175 Male Candidates 520 Other organisation 495 Total 1190

Coding the published items related to the election in Akhbar Al Khaleej and

Al Ayam revealed that the informants focused on sending announcements to their voters. Most of them had never appeared in the media to introduce themselves to voters. 241

Out of the 175 items that were published in Akhbar Al Khaleej and Al Ayam,

136 items were published by the informants who participated in the study. Data showed that Informant C1 appeared thrice, C2 appeared 69 times, C3 appeared five times, C4 appeared 12 times, and C5 appeared four times. Additionally, C6 appeared five times, C7 appeared once, C8 appeared eight times, C9 appeared 10 times and C1 appeared 19 times. Data also showed that the only female candidate who appeared almost 70 times in both newspapers was C2. She located her images, sent announcements to her voters, wrote columns to convey her messages and advertised for her campaign as shown in Figure 6.15 below.

Figure 6.15: Appearances of the informants in Akhbar Al Khaleej and Al Ayam Table 6.3 below also illustrated the number of items that the informants published in Akhbar Al Khaleej and Al Ayam. Data showed that Informant C1 sent three announcements. Informant C2 extensively used newspapers to send her 242

messages, including: announcements, advertisements, and call the media to cover her campaign. The total items that were located in Akhbar Al Khaleej and Al Ayam were

69 items. Those items introduced her to voters, positioned her product and communicated her intentions to voters.

Informant C3 focused on announcements. She sent three messages, including one about her candidacy. Also, she located her advertisement and invited the media to cover her campaign. Informants C4, C5, and C6 focused on messages that contain announcements to their voters. Informant C8 sent eight messages of announcements.

Three times, Informant C4 called the media to cover her campaign.

Informant C10 advertised in newspapers several times. Her image in the advertisement was among other candidates that were less-apparent to voters. This is because she represented a political society who supported her campaign and the political party advertised for all its nominees. Also, through the advertisement, she sent six messages to voters.

Table 6.3: Appearance of the informants in Akhbar Al Khaleej and Al Ayam Column News Advertisement Announcement Media Coverage Total C1 0 0 0 3 0 3 C2 7 5 26 22 9 69 C3 0 0 1 3 1 5 C4 0 0 1 8 3 12 C5 0 0 0 4 0 4 C6 0 0 0 5 0 5 C7 0 0 0 0 1 1 C8 0 0 1 5 2 8 C9 0 0 6 2 2 10 C10 0 0 10 6 3 19 Total 136

As shown, the informants lacked appearance in media. This happened because using newspapers was expensive for most of the informants. They complained that they were not financially supported. Informant C6 states in Line 259 that; Prices of advertisements in traditional media were too expensive for me.

Informant C8 also comments in Line 197 that;

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At the beginning, the newspapers requested us to publish in the newspapers for free. But because I did not decide to stand for election yet, I did not publish anything in newspapers. The columns that we were asked to publish were about our election programme and the future plans; all were about our election campaign. I hesitated to stand for election; I did not publish anything.

Meanwhile, Informant C2 used newspapers to flood the market with her images, slogans, columns. Three months before the Parliamentary election, she used five local newspapers to locate her product.

On the last month before the election, I started to use a full page in three local newspapers after I conducted a market research. I found that… there were 70% of the people read Al Wasat, 20% read Al Ayam and 10% read Akhbar Al Khaleej newspaper. It was very important to know your market. It is very important to know the channels that enable you to reach the voters and to send your messages. I decided to choose a day of the week to locate my weekly events. That was in the last four weeks before the election.

On the other hand, it is observed that Informant C2 used newspapers to appear and be seen by voters. She equally used every space on each of the pages.

Informant C2 used a full page to advertise for her product, programme and all other activities. She used this strategy in 3 local newspapers; 2 of them were Akhabr Al

Khaleej and Al Ayam. As illustrated in the page of Informant C2, she located her advertisement with her image at the top of the page. On the left, she located a column written by her and at the center she located some news of her activities. At the bottom, there were some messages to voters or to other stakeholders.

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As illustrated in Plate 6.12 below in Informant C2’s advertisement, the message also indicated the location of the Informant’s image, slogan, map of

Bahrain, and the constituents that she represents on the page of a newspaper. On the left side of the page, she located a newspaper column article that she wrote. On the center of the page, she situated a message about her electoral programme, news about her business, and other activities.

The female candidate’s name

Plate 6.12: Female candidate used full page in Akhbar Al Khaleej Source: Akhbar Al Khaleej, 30 October 2014, No 9335.

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Data also show that some candidates (male and female) share one advertisement to reduce costs of their campaigns in Plate 6.13 below, which presented 10 candidates; four of them were female while six were male candidates who appeared in one advertisement.

Plate 6.13: Ten candidates appeared in one advertisement Source: Al Ayam, 13 November 2014, No 9348

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Furthermore, the informants used newspapers to announce and send messages to their voters. Selecting the right location of the advertisements and announcements enabled voters to see and observe them. Some of the informants located their news and announcements in small spaces in the newspapers. As illustrated in Plate 6.14, an image and announcement of an informant is placed in a small size on an inside page

(13), which was not visible or observable to voters.

Announce

ment and

image of a

female

candidate Plate 6.14: Female candidate located her image and announcement Source: Al Ayam, 14 October 2014, No. 9318

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6.7.6 Supporters of the Female Candidates

The informants used their relations to manage their campaigns. They were supported by individuals and institutions. Data showed that the informants received support from SCW, families and relatives, social figures, politicians, experts and professionals as well as friends and the media (Figure 6.16).

Figure 6.16: Informants and support

As illustrated in Figure 6.16 above, nine informants received support from

SCW; seven were supported by family and relatives; four were supported by social figures, four were supported by politicians; three were supported by professionals; three had support from friends; and two stated that they were supported by the media.

The support that informants received from SCW was different than the support from others. There was exchange of benefits between the informants and the

SCW. Supporting the informants in their campaign to reach parliament is achieving the informants’ objectives. Also, the informants’ winning of parliamentary seats is an

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achievement of SCW’s objectives to increase women representation in parliament.

Data showed that nine of the informants’ major support came from the SCW.

The SCW provided logistic and technical support as well as legal consultation to the informants. The SCW organised workshops that enhanced and empowered the informants’ skills to contest elections, acquire presentation skills, design their product and present experiences of some candidates from other countries. These workshops were organised over a one-year period. In Line 27, Informant C2 states that; The workshops took almost a year, but I had no idea about it. Also, I attended workshop (Political Media) which took three weeks or a month.

Also, Informant C7 states in Line 68 that; Those SCW workshops were organised a year and a half before elections started. Similarly, in Line 117,

Informant C8 noted; [the] SCW provided logistic support. [The] SCW organised workshops and courses, which took more than a year before elections started. I attended almost 10 months of these workshops before the election started. We were attending for 5 hours a week, then they increased the session to 10 hours a week before election started. Likewise, Informant C9 notes in Line 102 thus; Yes, I attended these workshops and courses. The programme was for a year which was theoretical.

Meanwhile, Informant C1 states that the workshops were useful and helped her to design her programme. She states this in Line 106; Yes. It was the SCW that supported me in my election campaign. SCW provided workshops and courses such as introduction to politics, how to market for yourself in elections, how to design your election programme, how to appear in public. I have attended all these courses which were so useful.

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Similarly, Informant C2 said that SCW workshops increased the female candidates’ awareness of political marketing. According to her in Line 27;

I had attended workshops (Political Empowerment) which [were] organised by the SCW. These workshops encouraged me to decide to stand for elections. In these two workshops, I started to know that the candidate is a “product”. Moreover, the workshops gave me ideas about how to manage election campaigns. Here, I started to associate my profession, the ideas about candidates, and elections. Before those workshops I had no idea that a candidate is a “product”. These workshops discussed many ideas and concepts such as movements in politics and candidate’s language such as “dirty language”.

Also, Informant C1 states in Line 106 that;

It was the SCW that supported me in my election campaign. [The] SCW provided workshops and courses such as, introduction to politics, how to market for yourself in elections, how to design your election programme, how to appear in public. I have attended all these courses which were so useful. But, what’s after that?

Other female candidates also received support from SCW. Informant C3 stated that the SCW supported her, but it was after she could pass the first round. She notes in Line 229 that the;

SCW supported me after I passed the first round. Before that I did not receive any support from them in the first round. But I attended the courses and workshops that were organised by the SCW… I collected information that was so useful in my election campaign”.

Informant C4 also sates in Line 324 that the;

SCW was one of the positive supporters. [The] SCW supported women in all domains and in election in specific. This support was not in the 2014 election only, but also SCW supported me in 2002 and 2006. In 2006, I received financial support which was BD 3000. This amount was not in cash, but it was paid by brochures and banners. SCW paid for all female candidates who attended the SCW workshops and courses or did not attend. Also, SCW paid for the female candidates whether they were independents or a nominee of one of the political societies… SCW support was legal and technical consultancy. SCW was with us supporting us from the beginning.

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In addition, Informant C6 commented in Line 51 that the; SCW was the most influential supporter. Members of SCW came to my electoral headquarters, which was kind of support. Likewise, Informant C7 states in Line 68 that;

SCW provided workshops and training courses that enhanced female candidates’ skills to stand for election. I was registered in those workshops, but I did not attend all of these training courses. Those SCW workshops were organised a year and a half before election started. I was the first that registered in those courses.

The workshops of SCW presented experiences from other countries which enriched the workshops. Informant C8 said this in Line 117;

SCW provided logistic support. SCW organised workshops and courses, which took more than a year before elections started. I attended almost 10 months of these workshops before the election started. We were attending for 5 hours a week, then they increased the session to 10 hours a week before election started. SCW also invited experts who had experience in the field such as some parliament[ary] candidates from Kuwait, (Sheikha Dr……) who had clear role in the training and gave us valuable ideas of how to behave, etiquette and legal issues of parliament.

Inviting social figures to give speeches during the informants’ campaigns was also one of the techniques adopted by the SCW to support the informants. Informant

C8 states in Line 127 that;

I received a phone call from SCW to inform me that (Sheikh...) would come to my electoral tent to be a guest in some nights with (Mr.……). The SCW was right to call Sheikh (…) to give a speech in my electoral tent.

Meanwhile, Informant C9 found that the workshops needed to be practical to enable the informants to practice how to conduct political marketing. She states in

Line 102;

Yes, I attended these workshops and courses. The programme was for a year which was theoretical… few of these workshops were practical, they came very late. Yes, I can say that there were training support from SCW such as training on legal and media issues. Overall these workshops and courses were good. The objectives of the presenters who participated in 251

these workshops were to present their experience in elections. I think SCW support was notable.

In Line 106, Informant C10 said that; In fact, SCW did the best to all the female candidates.

Notably, the election of one of the family members to parliament meant that the family had a voice in parliament. Hence, the families of the informants had a role in their campaigns. Data showed that seven informants agreed that their families and relatives supported them in their election campaigns. Members of the family (mother, father, brother, sister, son and daughters) provided support to the informants. Also, relatives in terms of cousins and uncles supported the informants. For example,

Informant C4 notes in Line 32 that; All of my family members, friends and neighbours stood with me and supported me in my election campaign. Similarly,

Informant C5 notes in Line 101 that;

I received support from my husband. He was the main supporter. He stood with me in my election campaign. My father and my brothers did not save any effort to stand with me and encourage me. My mother also has clear role in supporting me. My family was the only supporter for my election campaign.

Also, Informant C7 was supported by her family members to select her slogan. She states in Line 73 that; Because there was no one who worked alone, I discussed these slogans with my family; about which is the best slogan to be used in the election. We all agreed that the one you knew is the best slogan.

Informant C8 was encouraged by her family too, to stand for the election. She states in Line 411 that;

After I came back from Haj, my cousin called me and asked if I would stand for election. I explained for [sic] him that I do not want to go for election. He said that all my family would support me in addition [to] my husband and all my other cousins. All of my family motivated me to go

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for [the] election. I stood because my family motivated me to stand for [the] election.

Meanwhile, Informant C3 had no working team, but her husband was the one who organised and managed her campaign. She confirms in Line 214 that; I had no team, but [it was] me and my husband who organise[d] and manage[d] my campaign. Also, Informant C6 was supported by her husband, not in her election campaign only but also in her business. She explains how, in Line 105; I salute my husband [who is] the owner of this business and was the one who supported me in

[sic] all stages of my election campaign.

Data also show many social figures supported the informants in their election campaigns. The social figures provided speeches, recommendations and all other forms of support to empower women in politics. The social figures that supported the informants also organised some seminars that were conducted by the informants and some social figures who gave speeches. Sheikh Salah Al Jowder was one of the social figures who supported most of the informants in their campaigns. In Plate 6.15 overleaf, Sheikh Salah Al Jowder was giving speech in the majlis of one of the female candidates on 30th September 2014.

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Plate 6.15: Sheikh Salah Al Jowder giving a speech at the Majlis of one of the female candidates

Data also show that four of the informants were supported by social figures and opinion leaders (oldest people who receive respect from the society). Informant

C2 stated that there were many people who believed in the abilities of women in managing. She notes this in Line 315; Many people supported me because they believed in me and my abilities. …I met no support, but gradually, support increased by people who participated in election campaigns such as Sheikh Salah Al Jowder and Mr. Yusuf Bu Zaboon. People who provided recommendation to other people to vote for me, was in logistical support.

Informant C3 depended on her relations in addition to the social figure who supported her in her election campaign. She states in Line 258 that; It was kind of market research but through my relation and relatives in the area. It was not extensive, but I depended on the social figures in the area.

Sheikh Salah Al Jowder was one of the social figures who supported the informants in their election campaigns. Informant C8 states this in Line 128; The

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SCW was right to call Sheikh Salah Al Jowder to give speeches in my electoral tent.... As a matter of fact, Sheikh Salah Al Jowder would be a big supporter for me.

Support of social figures had many advantages; first it served as a form of recommendation. Second, it is word-of-mouth. Third, they gave speeches that supported the informants. Informant C5 expresses this in Line 113; Social figures had [a] role to facilitate my meetings with the people in the area. They stood with me which was kind of “recommendation” to voters to select me. I targeted these characters first as voters and then as source of recommendations, or if you would like a “word-of-mouth”.

Politicians calculate their benefits in supporting a certain candidate. It is an exchange process between the politicians and the candidate who are supported, what they win and what they lose. The support of politicians to the informants in Bahrain was basically based on the relationship between the two.

Data show that four informants were supported by politicians, including; members of parliament, political societies and ministers. Informant C6 said she got an offer from a political society to support her. She considered this offer would eventually be used to take advantage of her. She rejected the offer. According to her in Line 243;

I received a phone call from one of the political societies. This call was under the table, that the society would like to support me. My answer was either to be officially under the society umbrella in public or not work under table. However, I was looking to be supported from any side but also, I did not want to be hidden working as an independent in public and for a political society under table. I preferred to not sell a wrong product to my voters.

Informant C9 was supported by a political society. She explained this in Line

94 thus; Democratic Nation Association (DNA) was one of the supporters. The

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society was in the shade at the beginning, but it supported me. [The] DNA [which] was headed by (Dr…), offered the society[’s] support to the female candidates which made me join the society. It was logistical support.

Informant C3 had a good relationship with the former PM who provided her information about the voters of her constituency. She states in Line 259 that; I met the former members of parliament or the people who have information about the voters. I met (Dr…….). At the beginning, I got nothing from her, but when she changed her address and stand [sic] for election in another constituency, she provided me all the information I needed about the voters.

Professionals, experts and academics also played roles in supporting the informants. Data showed that three of the informants were supported by experts and professionals. Informant C9 noted that there were experts who supported her election campaign. She states in Line 127 that; They were many experiences; some of these candidates could reach parliament and some could not. There was [a] media consultant who provided guidance. Also, there was Jood Society that has notable support to me campaign [sic].

Informant C8 also said that there were experts who increased their activities during the second round of her campaign. She notes this in Line 62; In the first round, my team did not do much for me because [of] lack of experience in marketing.

Also, in the second round, I was supported by experts who controlled my team members and gave me some advises. These experts also went with me in my visiting

[sic] to the voters’ houses.

Friends also played roles in the informants’ campaigns and encouraged them to contest the election. Data showed that three informants were supported by their friends. Informant C8 said her friend encouraged her to stand for the election.

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According to her statement in Line 415; My best friend also pushed me to go for election. Likewise, Informant C4 was also supported by her friends. She states this in

Line 332; All of my family members, friends and neighbours stood with me and supported me in my election campaign.

Some of the informants also had good relationships with columnists and writers in newspapers who allowed them to publish or advertise for their campaigns.

Also, some the informants had relationship with groups on social media who worked with them to announce advertise and expand their products. Data showed three informants were supported by the media. Groups of users of social media also supported the informants. Most of these groups advertised for informants as confirmed by. Informant C8 in Line 76 thus;

I used social media. I used Text Messages to communicate [with] the voters who did not use WhatsApp. Also, I was supported by (Group ….) on Twitter. Such groups were paid and some of them volunteers. There were also some friends who came to my electoral tent and advertised for me in their groups on WhatsApp.

Informant C9 also said in Line 76 that;

Then WhatsApp comes after the two platforms. WhatsApp was so personal. It gave direct influence and interaction between me and the other party. Also, the SMS has it role in connecting voters. I received many messages through SMS.

6.8 Polling Day

The election campaigns last until one month before the election. The polling was held on 24th November 2014. During the electoral campaigns, the informants conducted presentations, seminars, visitations, and meetings with the voters on their election campaigns.

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Twenty-four hours prior to the polling dates, all campaigns stopped.

According to DER, all the campaigns must end on what they called, “the Day of

Silence”, meaning “Yauom Al Samt”. This was on the 23rd November 2014. All candidates stopped their campaigns including the sending of messages through SMS and social media. Abdulla Al Buainain, the Chief Executive Officer of DER answered a question about some candidates who used social media in Yauom Al

Samt. He said that “there were no complains about this issue and anyone [who] has evidence must submit [those evidence]” (Akhbar Al Khaleej, 30 November 2014, No.

13400, p. 10).

On 18th November 2014, few days before the election date, all Embassies of

Bahrain across the world opened for voters who lived abroad to elect their representatives. According to the Directorate of Election and Referendum (DER),

1,667 voters participated in the election through the Embassies of Bahrain (Akhbar

Al Khaleej, 18 November 2014, No. 13388, p. 10).

On 24th November 2014, Parliamentary Election was held. According to the

DER 2014, 183,936 voters participated in the parliamentary election. The DER also reported that 53.59% of the voters were male and 46.41% were female. The voters who practiced their rights to vote for their representatives for the first time after attaining the legal age of voting (21 years old) (see Appendix I) were 49,553. These voters represented 48.02% of the total number of registered voters of 349,713 in the country (Akhabr Al Khaleej, 24 November 2014, No 13394, p. 6).

To facilitate the voting process, the DER provided four public centers situated at public places like the Bahrain International Airport, King Fahad

Causeway, Formula I (Grand Prix) Circuit and the University of Bahrain (Plate 6.16 overleaf).

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Plate 6.16: One of the public centers in the University of Bahrain Source: Al Wasat, 30 November 2014, No. 4467

On 24th November 2014, the day of polling, voters took their identity cards and went to the centers early in the morning to elect their representatives (Plate 6.17).

Plate 6.17: Queues of voters checking their information Source: DER and Referendum, 2014

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The voting process was step-by-step. First, a voter checks his/her information at the DER disk. Once the voter information is correct and his/her name is listed in the voters list, he/she receives two cards of elections; one card for Parliamentary election (red) and the other is for Municipal Election (green) (Plate 6.18).

Plate 6.18: A voter checks his information in the DER office Source: Directorate of Election and Referendum, 2014.

Then, the voter goes into a cubicle to tick his/her candidate of choice for the

Parliament on the red card; and tick the name of the Municipal candidate on the green card. He or she then drops the red card in the red box for the Parliamentary election and the green card in the green box for the Municipal election (Plate 6.19).

Plate 6.19: Coloured boxes used for voting for municipal and parliamentary elections Source: Al Watan, 30 November 2014, No. 3277

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Candidates were not allowed to talk to voters or influence them. However, they could sit on a stage in the polling centres to observe the polling process. In case they had any complaints, they applied to the judge in the center. In Plate 6.20, the candidates can be seen on the stage watching the votes counting process.

Plate 6.20: Candidates watching the process of counting the votes Source: Al Wasat, 30 November 2014, 4467

6.9 End of the First Round of Election

At the end of the polling, the centers closed, and votes were counted. The results of the first round were announced showing that out of the 22 female candidates, 16 female candidates did not qualify for the second round and were therefore disqualified from proceeding to the second round. Out of the study sample, C1, C6,

C9 and C10 lost the election in the first round.

Six female candidates of the 22 female candidates qualified for the second round of election (Appendix J). Fortunately, this study was conducted with the six female candidates.

The second round of parliamentary election was tougher and more aggressive for the female candidates than the first round. Data showed that four of the female candidates who qualified for the second round contested in Shamalyeh; one contested

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in Janubeyah and one in Asemah. Each of these female candidates contested against male competitors. Female candidate C2 won 718 (37.26%) votes; female candidate

C3 won 1,092 (24.64%) votes; female candidate C4 won 2,095 (28.86%) votes; female candidate C5 won 963 (46.5%) votes, female candidate C7 won 183 (25.96%) votes and female candidate C8 won 523 (22.92%) votes (Table 6.4).

Table 6.4 The 6 female candidates who contested in the second round Female Candidate Governorate Constituency Votes C2 Shamalyeh 6 718(37.26%) C3 Asemah 7 1092(24.64%) C4 Janubeyah 5 2095(28.86%) C5 Shamalyeh 12 963(46.5%) C7 Shamalyeh 1 183(25.96%) C8 Asemah 5 523(22.92%)

Source: DER, 2014

6.10 Threats in the Informants’ Campaigns

Data show that the informants faced threats. The threats faced by the informants during their election campaigns were; stereotype, sabotage and aggressive behaviour.

Five of the informants said they encountered stereotypical threats; three faced sabotage; and two said that they encountered some aggressive behaviour (Figure

6.17).

Figure 6.17: Informants and threats 262

In Figure 6.17, five of the informants faced threats through stereotyping, three said that their banners and posters were ruined and destroyed; two noted that they were threatened with aggressive, bad words and attack on their reputation. For example, asking about the roots of the female candidates was used to underestimate and harass them. Informant C1 states in Line 148 that; in some other constituencies, voters asked the candidate: who are you? Which family or tribe [do] you belong to?

What is your political society? In fact, voters in my constituency did not ask such questions.

Some competitors used tactics to threaten the female candidates. The politicians were looking for any issue that would hurt the female candidates. Raising questions about the roots of the female candidates was one of the competitors’ tactics to threaten the female candidates. Informant C4 mentions in Line 35 that:

Some behaviours that I face[d] during my campaign were the race issues [sic]. I heard statements such as: (this female candidate (me) is originally (Holiah) you know that Al Hawalah came from Persia in Iran, but they are Arabs. I was positive in this issue. I dealt [with] such attitudes that I showed that (My place in your hearts is much better than a seat in Parliament).

Also, C8 notes that the competitors used the reputation of the female candidates to threaten them. She states in Line 394; Educate voters to not go into

[sic] the female candidates’ reputations. It is unethical to expose to [sic] one of the female candidate reputation. I received a lot of messages that exposed my reputation in something which was not true. Similarly, Informant C9 states in Line 178 that;

Reputation of the candidate is important too. Some other competitors used the past of the female candidate to attack her. If the reputation of the female candidate is good, then I think this would be positive for her. In addition, Informant C10 states in Line

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144 that; Also, there were SMS, messages and emails that were exposed to the reputation of the female candidates.

In sum, the informants were supported by their families, social figures and politicians to conduct their election campaigns. Contest for the election was tough for the informants. The informants designed their product using their image, slogans and advertisements. They did not use ideology because they stood as independents. They used political communication; such as Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh, newspapers and social media. However, no informant won the election in the first round, but six of them were able to qualify and proceed to the second round.

6.11 Second Round of Election

It was only one week between the end of the first round and the polling of the second round. The informants who reached the second round started their campaigns on 25th of November 2014. This was immediately after the first-round results were announced. The tents of the informants opened again for the voters. Meetings and visits to voters increased and voters were eager to know who would win and be their representatives in parliament and those who would lose.

Boycotting voters who did not participate in the first round broke their silence and went to vote in the second round. Governor of Governorate of Muharraq said that “The people’s loyalty to Bahrain prevailed over calls to boycott the election” (Al

Wasat, 30th November 2014, No. 4467).

6.11.1 Strategies of the Informants in the Second Round

Data showed that informants who stood for the second round of election used some strategies that helped them to attract more voters. The most notable strategy

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was alliance. Also, the informants increased their apparent and interacted more with the voters. They increased their apparent in the media and interactions through visits.

6.11.1(a) Alliance Strategy

Data showed that two of the female candidates used the alliance strategy in the second round of election. They needed such strategy as both female candidates faced ideological political societies.

Informant C3 indicated that Al Wefaq Society boycotted the election, but its influence on its followers and many Shi’a was clear. Thus, Informant C3 allied with her strong competitor who was liberal. The Informant used the term ‘libral’ to express to to the candidates and political societies who advocated for the ‘liberation of women’. Informant C3 indicates that she allied with a male candidate after he lost in the first round based on her statement in Line 217;

In the second round, I allied with (Dr……) who gave me his team and the voters who voted for him in the first round. Also, there were persons who supported me and provided me working team to work with me. The mistake I have done [sic] that I did not allied with the rest of the candidates who could not pass the first round. The other male competitor reached those candidates before me and allied with them.

Informant C4 stood in Janubeyah Governorate. Her Constituency was dominated by powerful influences of cultural factor, tribalism mentality and Islamic ideological political societies; Al Asalah (Sunni) Society and Al Menbar (Sunni)

Society. Informant C4 notes in Line 47 that;

Al Asalah and Al Menbar Society were aggressive. Bear in mind that in my constituency, I stood against the Head of Sunni bloc – the Chairman of Al Menbar Society (Dr. …….). The difference in votes between me and him was not that big, despite many clear interferences [were responsible for] for Al Asalah Society’s [victory]. I realised all what happened... It was unacceptable that an independent female candidate wins in election, even if she is loyal to the government, but [not] against the head of the biggest bloc. 265

Informant C4 sent messages through Al Aayam on page 12, saying; I promise my voters that I will continue [to] compete till I win in the second [round] to fulfill my promise to you” (Al Ayam, 25 November 2014, No. 9361). She also used alliance as a strategy in the second round just like in 2006, and it was successful. She used the same strategy again in the 2014 election, but she had some difficulties this time.

Informant C4 states this in Line 101 thus;

Alliance as one of my strategies was from the beginning. Alliance became clearer after the first round. …I used this strategy not only in the 2014 election, but also in 2006. In 2006, I allied with other competitors, but in 2014 it was more difficult. Why? It was because; first I was a female and independent. Alliance takes place between two equal parties. In 2014, Political Society would not ally with an independent candidate, but [they] tried to find a society or blocs. In the 2006 election, there were varied candidates; independents, oppositions and political societies. All these candidates have their considerations and strategies which at the end preferred alliances with powers rather than an independent female candidate. Let me tell you something. The opposite political societies preferred to be allied with other opposition political society.

6.11.1(b) Increasing their appearance

The informants increased their apparent in the media and in public. For example,

Informant C5 who stood for the second round states in Line 43 that;

In the second round I increased my movements. In the second round I visited all the voters’ houses and met all the voters individually. It was not [an] easy task to meet all [the] voters individually, but I did it. I met aggressive behaviour from some voters, but on the other side I had civilised dialogue with the others. I used facts such as my qualification; [I] have [a] PhD, [I] taught in universities and established hospitals in some other countries.

Similarly, Informant C8 increased her apparent depending on herself during visits to voters. She states in Line 173 and 180 that;

What I want to say [is] that after I went to the second round, the name of (…) became known and started to attract attention. There was one message for all voters. There were groups of voters that I had to visit

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their houses. These groups were disabled, old voters who could not come to my electoral tent, those who I knew that they did not receive my messages through social media, and those who seek to meet me face to face. Some families had Ameed (Head) of the family. I met the family’s Ameer who passed my message to all the members of the family. There were also the majlis (gathering places) of young people.

6.11.1(c) Targeting Voters who believe in Women

In a Constituency that was dominated by Al Wefaq, Informant C7 targeted voters who believed in women and were willing to support her. She targeted this group of voters to increase and motivate the other voters who were hesitant. Informant C7 states in Line 82 that; I started with those voters who believed in women in legislative

[offices]. Those audiences have played [a] big role in supporting my campaign.

6.11.1(d) Targeting Voters through the Media

Informant C2 contested in Shamalyeh Governorate and used media to motivate her voters. She also increased her apparent by strategically placing her images, columns, news, meetings and all other activities in newspapers. Equally, she motivated her voters by using the social media. Her messages on social media were used to express her gratitude to voters for supporting her in the first round. There were also images of leaders, and congratulatory messages to the voters to rejoice with them on any of their occasions.

Plate 6.21 illustrated a message sent by Informant C2 to voters on 26th

November 2014. This was few days before the second round of election. On

Instagram, the Informant sent her message to motivate voters to vote on what she called the “resolution day”. She situated her slogan, image, and the blocks of her

Constituencies and contact numbers.

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Name and image of the female candidate

Image of the

female candidate

Name of the female candidate

Plate 6.21: Message from a female candidate who contested in the second round Source: A female candidate’s Instagram account, 26 November 2014

6.12 Post-Election

The success of the three informants during the 2014 Parliamentary Election was a win for the SCW. In the 2002, 2006 and 2010, only one female candidate succeeded in winning a parliamentary seat after her competitors withdrew from the election, and that was even before the start of the election. The 2014 Parliamentary Election witnessed a new beginning. The three female candidates who won seats into the parliament were successful due to the significant roles played by the SCW, the people who believe in women and the female candidates’ alliance. The support of the

SCW was clear and this reflected the Council’s responsibility towards empowering women in politics and the partnership between female candidates and the SCW. In a statement, HRH Princess Sheikha Sabikah bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa (the Head of

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SCW) associated the women voters’ interaction to successes during the election

(Akhabr Al Khaleej, 24 November 2014, No, 13394).

Three of the informants who stood for the second round of election were victorious and won parliamentary seats. One of these three informants (C7), focused on the parliamentary works. There were no activities observed about her in the media. The other two informants increased their apparent in the media and were active in the meetings at parliament. For example, Informant C2 is still active on

Instagram, sending messages about her activities.

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In Plate 6.22, a female candidate can be seen during one of her visits to the

Saudi Arabian Embassy during the National Day Celebration on 27 September 2016.

Name of the female candidate

Name of the female

candidate

Plate 6.22: A female candidate participated in Saudi National Day Source: The female candidate’s Instagram account, 2016

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Also, Informant C7 increased her apparent on Instagram. Plate 6.23 showed her participating in a social occasion.

Name of the female candidate

Twitter handle of the PM

Plate 6.23: A female candidate participated in a social occasion Source: The female candidates’ account on Instagram, 2016

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The two female candidates who won the parliamentary election increased their activities on all levels to expand their brand for the next election. They strengthened their brand in their Constituencies and Governorates. From their activities, they were building reputation about their work in parliament and in social activities to build a brand that would serve them in the next election.

Some of the informants who could not pass the first-round supported other candidates. For example, after she lost the election, Informant C1 sent messages of thanks to voters who trusted her (Al Ayam, 27 November 2014, No. 9363). Informant

C6 states in Line 239 that; I could not win in the first round. So, in the second round of the election, I supported Mr. Mohammed Al Ahmed, one of two competitors who went for the second round. I supported Mr. Al Ahmed because he was young and wished him all the best.

Meanwhile, after a while Informant C6 started appearing on Instagram, posting brands of her business, sharing people and occasions, but nothing about the election.

Informant C9 wrote on 1st of December 2015 and after she lost the election in the second round, in Al Wasat that; “I will fold the page of the election, but I will keep working for the Constituency Five in Janubeyah and will be there to serve the

Kingdom of Bahrain in general and the Constituency in specific” (Al Wasat, 1

December 2015, No. 4468).

Most of the female candidates stopped their activities and apparent. Few of them still send messages through the media. Some of the informants stopped their activities in the media and in public; whereas, other informants who lost in the second round are still sending their messages and participating in activities.

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6.13 End of the 2014 Parliamentary Election

On 31st December 2014, the parliamentary election was concluded after the DER announced the parliament members who won the election and were voted into the

Parliament (Appendix K). In total, 40 members of parliament were elected and reached the parliament, three of them were women. The members of parliament started to hold their responsibilities as representatives of the people of Bahrain. Two caricatures reflected two view points of the people of Bahrain. The first comic was by the caricaturist, Abdulla Al Muharraqi which expressed the victory of the people of Bahrain in the election. It shows the polling box of 2014 elections. The box has two legs; the left leg represented the first round and the right leg represented the second round of election. The two hands of the box raised the victory sign (Plate

6.24). The comic reflected the feelings of the people of Bahrain on the success of the elections.

Plate 6.24: A caricature of Muharraqi in Akhbar Al Khaleej Source: Akhbar Al Khaleej, 30th November 2014, No. 13400 273

The second comic was by the caricaturist Hamad Almehezea. The caricature showed a voter asking a candidate who reached the parliament to take a selfie photo with him before he stops his communication with voters. The voter says, “congrats our candidate for winning, selfie pleases before you [become] extinct” (Plate 6.25).

Plate 6.25: A caricature by Hamad Almehezea Source: Al Watan 30.11.2014, No. 3277

6.14 Framework for Female Candidates in Elections

The data showed that many internal and external factors played significant roles in the female candidates’ campaigns. Considering all these factors, the study suggests a framework for female candidates who plan to contest election in Bahrain in the future.

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Arguably, the decision to contest in an election needs planning, implementation of the plan and having control over the plan. Hence, the female candidates who decide to contest election should consider the following:

Before election

1. The female candidate should plan early for her campaign. The plan allows the

female candidate to:

a) Identify the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats.

b) Identify the financial sources to support her campgian. There are

numerous sources, especially from individuals and institutions who

believe that the candidate can be a partner.

2. Customers normally hesitate to buy something they are unfamiliar with.

Similarly, in elections, voters do not vote for a candidate they do not know.

Hence, prospective female candidates should appear in public and be visible

to gain popularity. The best strategy to achieve this is to volunteer to

participate in social activities. Evidences of such actitivites should be

intensively circulated on various social media platforms. This will allow her

gain popularity in public circles and serve as an platform to introduce her to

the people, which is a very important stage in PLC.

3. The introductory stage portrays the female candidate positively in the society

and this will serve to design her image during elections.

4. Projecting the image of the female candidate in society can create a brand for

her and associating her image with emotions of voters also helps her to find a

way into the hearts of the voters before getting into their heads.

5. The female candidate needs to build a good relationship with all stakeholders.

This includes the male communities, government, tribal and religious leaders.

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The government is a strong stakeholder and should be considered to build

good relationship with. Tribes also hold the ‘aces’ to votes in the KoB.

Having their cooperation can support the female candidate. Some of the

religious leaders also have their reservations about women participation in

politics. Similarly, considering other groups of stakeholders is important.

6. Women in the GCC have proven that they are capable of holding positions of

authority. These contributions can create a good image, which the female

candidate can build on during elections. The female candidate can use such

achievements by other women in the GCC in her campaigns to show how her

product is the best.

7. Culture is the main stumbling block for female candidates who want to be

elected as members of parliament in the GCC. However, culture in the GCC

is changing. Similarly, the constitution in the GCC grants women the rights to

vote and be voted for, especially in Saudi Arabia, which is the main

influencer regarding the issue of women participation in politics. Such

changes in culture and politics can be a good opportunity for women in the

KoB and the GCC to latch on and increase their numbers as contestants and

eventual winners during parliamentary elections.

8. The female candidate should empower herself in terms of exploring the

experience of women in societies that have similar culture and make use of

their mistakes to develop the experience in the GCC.

9. Conducting market research: Collecting information about stakeholders can

be undertaken through the relatives of candidates. However, formal market

research provides more specific information about stakeholders, such as the

attitudes of voters, the candidates’ competitors, among others.

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10. Identifying the communication tools: Individuals prefer certain

communication tools for news and information. The female candidate should

target the voters through their preferred news and information channels.

11. Improving their selling skills is paramount in election campaigns. It is the

way to persuade voters to elect the female candidates, because some voters

need to be persuaded that the political product of the female candidate is the

best. Hence, designing the image of the female candidate, in terms of how she

would appear in society, her speech and her meeting with her voters, should

reflect that her product is not just the best, but the most unique.

During election

This is the time to actualise the plan. The voting period is short. It takes almost few weeks for the voters to decide who to elect. Hence, it is imperative to:

1. increase communication with voters through social media, newspapers

and in public;

2. Choose the newspapers that have largest readership statistics. Likewise, it

is important to make strategic newspaper placements to project the

candidate’s image, announcements and advertisements. As observed,

some female candidates announced or positioned themselves in very

small spaces where they are not visible for newspaper readers;

3. be convincing, because using statistics for example, makes voters believe

that the female candidate is presenting facts, not just making promises;

4. Apply market research, because this provides information about voters.

One group of voters that should be strongly considered are hesitant

voters, since they can make a difference in vote sharing.

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After election

The study showed that most of the informants closed their accounts on social media after losing the election. This is a wrong approach since elections are held every four years. Thus, it is important to;

1. be visible in the media and in public;

2. take stock of mistakes during previous elections and make amends;

3. Plan for the next election using their cummulative experience. The study

showed that some of the informants contested the parliamentary elections

severally and those who contested thrice eventually won in 2014 using their

experiences from previous elections.

The model can be implemented by female candidates in the GCC. The female candidates in the GCC encounter the same factors that hider them to win in elections.

Hence, considering culture of the GCC, design their products to be accepted by voters, creating relation networks, targeting the tribes and families, design their communication strategies, enables them to compete their male counterparts.

6.15 Summary

The findings revealed that the informants relied heavily on their relationships with all groups of stakeholders. It is obvious that the informants were relationship-oriented candidates. They relied on their families, relatives, their relations with social figures, media and politicians to expand their brands and products. Almost all the informants stood for election as independents. Hence, they did not create their product based on ideology. Rather, they created their products based on their election programmes, slogans and communication with voters to persuade them. Data showed that the informants segmented and targeted the voters and positioned their products. Market

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segmentation was mainly based on demographic characteristics. They targeted voters through social media in the first place, and Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh, which were used as distribution channels.

Basically, the alliance strategy was used by the informants based on their relationships with their competitors. They also, used alliance strategy because it is one of the election traditions. The informants equally increased their apparent in the second round of the election. Increasing apparent should take place long before the elections as it presents the introduction stage of the product.

Meanwhile, most of the informants who could not win in the election stopped their activities that were related to the election. Some of them still appear in social media, sending messages about their participation in social and political activities.

The female candidates who won the election continued their apparent in the media in an attempt to extend their brands.

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CHAPTER 7

DISCUSSION

7.0 Introduction

This chapter discusses the findings of the study. First, it illustrates the behaviour of the informants in a descriptive framework, presents the actual behaviour of informants in their election campaigns and then discussed, in an explanatory framework, the reasons and motives that drove the informants to behave in the way they did, before, during and after the elections.

7.1 Descriptive Framework

Women practiced their political rights of voting and standing for election. The informants were guided in their conducts during the election campaigns by the culture. The figure below describes the behaviour of the informants in the 2014

Parliamentary Election in the KoB (Figure 7.1).

TIME

Before Election During Election After Election

Empowering Skills Activate relation Deliver Product (Training) networks Establish/ strengthen relations Alliances Increase apparent

Support Strengthen Relation Design product Networks

Communication Communication

Figure 7.1 Descriptive Framework

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The culture was the strongest challenge encountered by the informants during the election. Hence, they relied on their relationships with individuals and institutions to circumvent such barriers.

The findings of the research show that all the informants joined workshops organised by the SCW. The workshops increased their skills to contest in the election. Most of the informants attended those workshops.

Before the election, the informants designed their products. They designed their slogans, posters, and brochures as political products. In their images, they presented themselves in Islamic clothing, which reflected their Islamic characters.

The informants used all types of communication. They mostly used Al Khaimah Al

Intekhabiyah as one of the voters’ preferred communication channel. They also visited the voters in their houses, places of gathering such as playing fields, male and women majlis. The informants also used social media platforms such as Instagram,

Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp to communicate with voters. The findings showed that only one informant created and used a website to communicate with voters.

The informants segmented their voters according to demographic and political orientation. Some of the informants focused on niche markets while few segmented the voters on geographical basis.

During the election, the informants used their relation networks in conducting their campaigns. In the light of the relationship-orientation, the informants used three strategies; alliance, targeting the people who believe in women in parliament and targeting the head of the families and tribes. They also increased their apparent during the election. The informants used alliance strategy more in the second round of election. They allied with some competitors to support them and to motivate their voters to select the female candidates.

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The informants also increased their apparent in the second round. They increased their apparent in the media and in public. Moreover, they increased their visits to voters and their families to persuade them.

After the election, most of the informants disappeared from the scene. Most of them stopped their apparent in social media and returned to their jobs, ending their activities of their election campaigns. Few of the informants continued their activities on social media. Few of them posted their social activities and visits to officials on social media.

The informants who continued their apparent in media and social activities were expanding their brands. However, most of the informants stated that they were uncertain about the future. Some of the informants continued their apparent in social activities.

The informants relied on their relations to manage their election campaigns.

They were relationship-oriented candidates. The informants implemented relationship-orientation for several reasons. In this descriptive framework, the informants’ behaviour before, during and after the election is illustrated. The following is the explanatory framework. It discusses and explains the behaviour of the informants.

7.2 Explanatory Framework

The descriptive framework depicts how the informants relied on their relation networks to manage their election campaigns. This explanatory framework discusses and explains the informants’ behaviour before, during and after the election. The framework (Figure 7.2) provided justifications on why the informants chose the relationship-oriented approach to conduct their campaigns.

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Culture

Tribalism Market Research Masculinity Stakeholders

Collectivism Segmenting, Targeting, Uncertainty Avoidance Positioning

ormants

Inf Political Welayat Al Maraa’ marketing (the Rule of Women) strategies Communication

Figure 7.2: Explanatory Framework

7.2.1 The Power of Relations

In the light of Arab-Muslim culture, the informants depended on their relations to conduct their campaigns. There were groups of internal and external factors that forced the informants to become dependent on their relationships. The first among the internal factors is less of experience in campaigning for election. The findings showed that only three of the informants were contesting parliamentary elections for the second time. Most of the informants less experience in election campaign management. Consequently, they took a short cut to contest for an election by relying on their relations.

Secondly, Muslims believe that the future is the will of Allah. They believe that all what they do or would do is in Allah’s hands. This belief was clear in the informants’ behaviour. The informants showed high uncertainty avoidance.

Uncertainty avoidance refers to “the extent to which people feel threatened by

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uncertainty and ambiguity and try to avoid these situations” (Hofstede, 1991, p. 113).

In the interview, the informants were asked about their plans for election in the future. All the informants answered that it is about Allah and they wish to stand for election, but they do not know what the future holds. This orientation reflects uncertainty avoidance. Also, this attitude influenced their plans for the 2014 parliamentary election. The informants did not plan for the election earlier. Hence, they depended on their relations to manage their campaigns.

Thirdly, many of the informants depicted shy and conservative behaviours during the interviews. Moreover, some of the informants stated that they lacked presentation skills. The informants’ relation networks supported them to cover up their weaknesses in presentation skills and appearance in public. The social figures played many roles during the informants’ campaigns using word-of-mouth, recommendation, and support and covering up the informants’ weaknesses in the skills of product presentation.

Fourth, relationship-orientation reflects femininity approach. The femininity approach has attributes such as caring and relationship orientation. Hence, the informants depended on their relations to support them and manage their election campaigns. Most of the individuals and institutions that supported the informants believed in women in parliament and politics. Also, feminine values were clear in the informants’ slogans in the 2014 Parliamentary Election in Bahrain.

Fifth, the Supreme Council for Women (SCW) workshops were good opportunity to increase the informants’ skills. Some of the informants attended few sessions of the workshops. However, the informants missed many ideas, tactics and strategies of political marketing that would be useful for their campaigns. Hence, they relied on their networks of relations for their election campaigns.

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Meanwhile, first among the external factors is that most of the SCW workshops were theoretical in nature. The workshops lacked practical exercises that could have enabled the informants to practice political marketing techniques and strategies. Implementing the strategies of political marketing would enable the informants to modify the learnt strategies to conform to the culture of Bahrain. The workshops presented some European and American election experiences. However, these experiences were incompatible with the Bahraini society due to cultural differences.

Second, the most powerful external factor that affected the informants’ relations-oriented campaign was the Arab-Muslim culture. The informants faced a cluster and complex of dimensions of culture such as tribalism, collectivism, masculinity, Welayat Al Maraa’ and uncertainty avoidance. Therefore, the informants used their relation networks in the parliamentary election campaign to avoid those cultural factors.

Third, tribalism a cultural dimensions that played a big role in the informants’ campaigns, especially the informants who stood in Janubeyah. Tribalism in Arabic means Qabaliyah, which is derived from the word “tribe”, meaning Qabilah. The root of qabila is qabal which means “to accept” in Arabic, where the members of the tribe like sons and cousins, are accepted by other members of the tribe in a social contract. In many cases, tribes gave their tribes’ names to the people who are under their protection even if not from the same great grandfather. This meant that such people were accepted and became members of the tribe. In tribal societies, the head of the tribe has superiority in taking decisions. Young people in tribal societies follow commands and orders and show respect to their elders, who in this case, is the

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head of the tribe, Sheikh and Ameer. This approach could be seen and observed in voters’ decision making in the election.

Notably, some of the informants faced religious societies who raised some selected contentious issues in Islam such as “Welayat Al Maraa’” to hinder women from winning in the parliament election. The informants who stood in constituencies that were dominated by religious societies encounter the issue of “Welayat Al

Maraa’”. Hence, they relied on their relations to support them in the election.

However, the collectivist culture of Bahrain was good for some informants.

According to Hofstede (1999), in a collectivistic culture, individuals belong to groups that look after them in exchange for loyalty. However, while some informants were negatively influenced by the collectivist culture; some others were positively affected by the collectivism of the society. Such informants had good relations with tribes who supported them in their election campaigns.

There are differences between tribalism and collectivism. It is true that individuals in tribes take their decisions collectively. Individuals in tribes follow the command of the Head (Sheikh) of the tribe. The tribe’s members normally come from the same great grandfather. In some cases, tribes give their name to family members for some security, social or economic reasons. The members of the tribe help and support each other, and they share the same values of the tribe. Individuals in a collectivist society may live in the same area, share the same values, traditions, customs, but they may not necessarily come from the same grandfather or have any kind of relations.

Collectivism of the culture was clear in the informants’ brand. The informants feel strong under the brands they created, which provided more spread and expansion. The informants preferred to use brands such as their family names

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and profession, rather than brands that are related to the parliamentary election. The main reason behind using their names and professions as brands in election was that the names of their families and professions had stronger impact on voters than brands related to election. In collectivist cultures, the names of the informants’ families and professions spread and expand widely than the brands that are related to the elections.

Thirdly, some of the informants indicated that the main objective of their campaigns is to persuade voters to select them. But, the informants found that their objectives changed from persuading voters to vote for them to vote for women.

Voters need to first believe that women are capable to be selected. This deviation of the informants’ objectives pushed them to rely on their networks of relations. Some of the informants stated that in the election, they needed first, to persuade the voters about women in parliament. Thus, they used their network of relations to conduct their election campaigns.

The role of culture in the informants’ campaigns was clear. For example, some of the informants use their family or tribe name. Individuals are proud of their families and tribes name in the GCC. For the informants, their families names were used as brand.

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7.2.2 Stakeholders

The informants used their relationships with groups of people who were interested in the election as illustrated in Figure 7.3 below and subsequently explained.

Voters SCW Potential voters Floating voters Staff

Government

Friends Female candidate DER

Family Political societies Advertisement Companies Social media Newspaper Competitors

Figure 7.3: Categories of stakeholders of the female candidates

The stakeholders above are explained as follows;

1) The mutual relationship between the informants and the stakeholders were

represented in mutual arrows between the informants and stakeholders.

2) There were stakeholders who were interested in the female candidate, but the

female candidates were not interested in them. These were represented using

the one-directional arrow to the female candidates.

3) There were other stakeholders who are not interested in supporting women to

become members of parliament. Still, the informants are interested in their

role in the election campaigns. These relations were represented using one-

directional arrows to the stakeholder group.

4) There were some groups who had no relationship with the female candidates.

This group of stakeholders are not connected with any arrows.

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The representation showed that the relationship occurred in a two-way pattern

– mutual and uni-directional patterns. The mutual relationship occurred where voters, staff, friends, families, SCW and competitors shared interests with the informants and groups of stakeholders. There is also a uni-directional relationship with government, DER, political societies, newspapers, social media, and advertisement companies. The informants did not focus enough on floating voters and potential voters.

7.2.3 Segmenting Voters

The findings showed that most of the informants segmented the voters based on demographic and political orientation. The reasons behind such segmentation are:

First, the constituencies in the Kingdom of Bahrain are small. Therefore, the informants did not need to lose time in segmenting the voters geographically.

Second, some of the informants stated that they are daughters of the soil. The informants however were not known in their constituencies. They believed that they knew the voters and could reach them. So, they believed that there was no need to segment the voters.

Third, the voters were almost homogeneous. Voters in constituencies almost shared the same values, needs and wants. The voters also had the same characteristics. The informants felt that they would have the same traits as the other voters.

Fourth, most of the informants did not conduct a formal market research. The informants indicated that they collected the information about voters from their relatives and data from the DER. Most of these data contained names and addresses of the voters only. The data did not identify the voters’ needs and wants. Therefore,

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due to lack information about voters, the informants used segmentation on demographic basis.

7.2.4 Political Communication

The informants used traditional and modern communication tools. Almost all the informants used Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh as one of the traditional tools of communication. Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh was used by all the candidates (male and female). This tool of communication is the favorite for the voters.

All the informants established accounts on social media applications. They were aware of the importance of social media. They targeted the young voters through social media (Figure 7.4).

Al Khaimah Al Women voters Old Intekhabyeh

voters Newspapers

Social media

Visits Niche Men Men Majlis Markets voters Women Majlis Young voters

Figure 7.4: Political communications and voters’ segments

7.2.5 Strategies of the Informants in the Election

Relationship-orientation influenced the political marketing strategies of the informants. The most notable strategy was alliance. Relationship-orientation justified using the alliance strategy. The findings showed that the informants used alliance strategy, especially in the second round. There were three mains reasons for using the alliance strategy. First, alliance strategy is one of the political tactics implemented by 290

candidates during the elections. Hence, the informants implemented the alliance strategy as an election culture. Allying with some powers gave support to the candidates.

Second, the informants faced two powerful political societies; Al Asalah and

Al Menbar. These are political societies with Islamic ideologies. Both have their followers and voters. Hence, the informants allied with independent candidates to increase their vote shares.

Third, the relationship between the informants and politicians enabled them to implement alliance strategy. Hence, the informants used their relations with some candidates to motivate their voters to select the informants.

The second strategy that was used by the informants was increasing their appearance in the second round. However, this strategy should have been applied before the election. The findings showed that the informants increased their apparent in terms of appearing in media and public. In the second round of election, the informants increased their apparent by visiting the voters and their families in their houses and places of gathering. There were two reasons for implementing this strategy. The informants realised the importance of appearing in public and the media during the election. They corrected their strategy during the second round by increasing their appearance. Perhaps the audiences, the professionals or the managers of the informants advised the informants to increase their appearance during the election campaign after the first round. This may have informed the decision of the informants who stood for the second round to increase their apparent in media and by visiting the voters in their houses.

The third strategy that was used by the informants was targeting the head of the families and sheikhs of the tribes. This strategy was used in the first round, but

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also used extensively in the second round. Tribalism and collectivism of the society of Bahrain enabled the informants to target the heads of the families and tribes, to motivate their members to vote for the informants. Targeting the head of the family or the tribe saves time, money and effort. The strategy of targeting the head of the family or the tribe was used mostly in the second round. The reason for using this strategy was that the informants who stood for the second round were known to the voters (maturity stage of product). The only action they needed was to motivate the voters to select them in the second round. Thus, the informants targeted the head of the families.

The fourth strategy used by the informants was targeting the people who believed in women’s participation in politics. This strategy was used in the second round. The informants focused on the people who supported them in the first round and attracted the voters who voted for the other competitors. In the second round in one of the constituencies, there were two candidates; the informant and another competitor – a male candidate. The voters elected the female candidate.

7.3 Evaluating the Strategies of the Informants

The informants who contested the 2014 Parliamentary Election used strategies and techniques of political marketing. Many internal and external factors played roles in their election campaigns. The informants should be aware of all these factors and design their campaigns accordingly. The following evaluates the strategies of the informants to highlight strengths; weaknesses; opportunities and threats (SWOT) of the informants’ strategies.

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7.3.1 Strengths

There were strengths in the informants’ election campaigns. First, the informants utilised their relations to conduct their campaigns. Creating relations with stakeholders is a very important aspect in political marketing. The only group of stakeholders who give their votes to the candidates are the voters. The other groups of stakeholders would not vote for the candidate, but they recommended the candidate and motivated the voters to select a certain candidate, if their relationship with him/her is good.

Second, the SCW workshops provided ideas and strategies that could be modified to fit the culture of Bahrain and be implemented. Most of the informants stated that the workshops were useful and provided them many ideas about politics and elections.

Third, however, none of the informants have any political educational qualification, even though most of them have acquired higher educational qualifications. One of the informants holds a PhD degree; five have Master degrees and four hold Bachelor degrees. Notably, the higher educational qualifications of the informants added value to them.

Fourth, generally women in the Kingdom of Bahrain have proven that they are qualified to hold higher positions. Such achievement can be used in presenting female candidates as a better political product in election.

Fifth, the study reveals that most of the candidates have charisma that can be used to persuade voters to elect them. They can utilise their skills in their speech to attract the voters.

Sixth, most of the female candidates were supported by their close families.

However, most of the female candidates are married and have family responsibilities

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beside their work responsibilities; they were supported by their close families before, during and after election.

7.3.2 Weaknesses

The findings showed that there were weaknesses in the informants’ strategies. First, standing for election needs early preparation. Most of the informants decided to stand for election very late. Burton and Shi’a (2010) noted that John F. Kennedy and his advisers spent three years planning their 1960 presidential campaign. A daylong strategy session in October 1959, more than a year before the voting got under way, focusing on the campaign’s final assault plans (White 1961, p. 53).

Most of the informants also lacked apparent. There were several reasons for such weakness. The first reason refers to the informants themselves. They failed to appear in public early enough to be seen and recognised by voters. Most of the informants started to appear in public during the second round of the 2014 election.

The findings show that fewer informants published their advertisements, posters, slogans and images in newspapers than the male candidates.

The second reason for lack of apparent refers to the media. Most of the informants stated that the advertisements cost them a lot of money. The informants stated that they could advertise in newspapers for free few weeks before the election.

Then, the newspapers requested them to pay for advertisement. In return, the newspapers gave them space for their columns, because election activities increase the newspapers’ profits through paid advertisements and announcements during the election time.

Third, visiting male communities was one of the most efficient channels of communication and distribution in the parliamentary election. Based on Arab-

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Muslim culture, it is unacceptable for a woman to visit male communities. Thus, most of the informants were hesitated to visit male majlis. Yet, the male voters were a group of voters that needed to be persuaded to elect female candidates. Only a few of the informants could break this taboo and visited male voters at their places of gathering. This was a difficult task for most of the informants.

Fourth, all the informants’ election campaigns had little financial support. All the informants stated that they were not financially supported. One of the informants noted that she spent almost BD 88,000 (USD 231,695) on her election campaigns.

Fifth, in Constituency 5 in Asemah, two female candidates stood against each other. Also, in the same Governorate in Constituency 10, three female candidates contested against each other. Moreover, in Constituency Six in Janubeyah, two female candidates also contested against each other in the election. Allowing two or more female candidates to contest against each other in the same constituency split the votes between the female candidates and other male competitors.

Sixth, some constituencies could be described as women-unfriendly constituencies. Such constituencies include; Muharraq Governorate and Janubeyah.

Female candidates stood in these two Governorates in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014, but no female candidate could win in Muharraq and only one female candidate could reach parliament in Janubeyah after the other male competitors withdrew. The two

Governorates should consider designing a strategy that soften the resistance and attitudes of voters towards female candidates.

There were two reasons for the women-unfriendliness in the constituencies in

Muharraq and Janubeyah. First, Muharraq is dominated by two of the strongest

Islamic political societies; Asalah and Menbar. The two political societies do not believe in women’s participation in politics. Second, Janubeyah Governorate is

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dominated by the culture of tribalism. Voters in Janubeyah always showed allegiance to the head of the tribe.

7.3.3 Opportunities

The findings showed some opportunities that existed to encourage women to contest for elections in the future. First, the Ministry of Justice banned the use of worship places to promote candidates and political societies. This decision of the Ministry of

Justice was a good opportunity for the female candidates to operate on an equal ground with their male counterparts, especially the male candidates who represented the political societies.

Second, the findings showed that some political societies boycotted the election. The decision of the political societies encouraged some informants to contest the election. The informants took advantage of this opportunity to contest the election.

7.3.4 Threats

Women have achieved their objectives and proved that they can hold higher positions. However, a part of the Bahraini society still considered women as minorities or second class. Thus, they created barriers and challenges for the female candidates. Such behaviour by competitors threatened the chances of the informants in the election.

The main three threats faced by the informants that influenced their campaigns were; first, some political societies used stereotype. Two informants experienced the threat of stereotype. The political societies, especially the religious political societies also used the threat of stereotype as a strategy to push the

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informants to lose focus during their presentation in the election campaigns. For example, two informants stated that the issue of ‘Welayat Al Maraa’’ was used during the election to underestimate their candidature.

The second threat was burning and destroying posters, and banners of the informants. Burning the informants’ posters and images cost much money. It also sent messages from the competitors that the informants would not be elected, and this caused them moral distress.

The third threat was exposing the informants’ reputation. Some informants stated that they faced such threats during their meeting with voters. Some audiences exposed the reputation of the informants to make the informants lose focus and control.

7.4 Summary

In conclusion, obviously the informants’ strategies were reactions to the culture, rather than proactive actions. Their strategies were implemented as a reaction to the behaviour of voters and competitors which was based on culture.

The study showed that relationship-orientation is one of the political marketing approaches that should be considered in designing election campaigns.

Voters are the aim of candidates. However, other stakeholders are important as well and should be targeted by the candidates. The female candidates in the parliamentary election in KoB developed their mutual relationship with the voter, but there were one-sided relationships with other groups of stakeholders.

The female candidates in KoB utilised Al Khaimah Al Intekhabyeh as one of the best platforms to distribute their political product and using benchmark slogans

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from USA proved that the female candidates need to be more creative and innovative in designing their election campaigns to reflect Bahraini values such as culture.

The female candidates used relationship approach and alliance strategy which indicated that both are defensive strategies. Such strategies cannot withstand aggressive political societies in parliamentary elections.

The strategies of the female candidates in the 2014 Parliamentary Election in the KoB were evaluated by using Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats

(SWOT) framework. The SWOT framework explored the strengths that should be used in future elections. The weaknesses can be turned into strengths. Additionally, some of the female candidates found opportunities that were advantageous for them to contest elections. The female candidates also faced threats, which were strategies employed by their male competitors to weaken their contests.

Notably, literature shows that most of the authors discussed political marketing considering political situation, the strategies of governments, political parties, or/and candidates. Many models were introduced to explain the behaviour of the candidates before, during and post-election. However, this thesis uncovered the behaviour of female political candidates in one Arab-Muslim country. It shows that their behaviour in election is controlled and guided by culture. Meanwhile, the voters behave according to the norms of Arab-Muslims where voters are still hesitant to vote for women candidate as their representatives in parliament, dispite acquiring higher degrees and occupying higher positions of authority in the country.

It is interesting to note that this study is new in terms of exploring the practices of female candidates’ decision to contest for election and to change the attitudes of voters to elect women in the same way they elect men based on skills, experience and qualifications, instead of gender-bias.

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CHAPTER 8

CONTRIBUTIONS, LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

8.0 Summary

This chapter highlights the contributions of the study by considering the research questions. It also addresses the limitations of the study, offers recommendations for future research and draws conclusions.

Chapter 1 discussed the background of the problem, the objectives and the questions of the study. Chapter 2 discussed the political life in the Kingdom of

Bahrain, covering its geography, history, demography and social life. In Chapter 3, relevant literatures were discussed, concentrating on the arguments of early and modern Muslims scholars about the legitimacy of women in politics. It also featured the relevant theories of political marketing such as the social exchange process and relationship orientation.

Chapter 4 contains the research methodology using the procedure of

Grounded Theory. Excerpts of the findings were reported in Chapter 5 and 6, including the political environment and culture. The behaviour of the informants in the 2014 Parliamentary Election in Bahrain was subsequently illustrated and discussed in Chapter 7, including internal and external factors that significantly influenced the election result. Chapter 8 highlights the contributions and limitations of the study, draws conclusions and make recommendations for future research

It is important to highlight that the aim of this research is to investigate the strategies used by female candidates in the 2014 Parliamentary Election in Bahrain based on the following research questions:

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The first research question (RQ) explored the extent of female candidates’ awareness of political marketing. The findings showed that some of the informants provided definitions that included terms and concepts of political marketing. The definitions of the informants showed that they have good knowledge of political marketing. However, some other informants could not define political marketing to the extent that some of them stated that they do not know what political marketing meant. Practically, most of the informants implemented political marketing tools. In conclusion, the informants showed moderate awareness of the importance of political marketing.

The second RQ was: what were the political marketing techniques and strategies utilised in 2014 by female candidates in the Parliamentary Election in the

Kingdom of Bahrain? The informants used techniques and strategies of political marketing. However, they were influenced by culture. The Arab-Muslim culture apparently drove the informants to be protectionist, relationship-oriented and more reliant on relationship network. This strategy influenced the tactics of segmentation, targeting, market intelligence and communication strategies with voters.

The third RQ was: what political marketing orientations characterised the female candidates’ campaigns? Relationship-orientation dominated the behaviour of informants in the parliamentary election. The findings revealed that the informants relied on their families, relatives, friends and other relations to conduct their campaigns. They mobilised their families, friends, networks in the media, and social figures in their campaigns. Therefore, the informants can be characterised as relationship-oriented candidates. The culture of the Kingdom of Bahrain is described as Arab-Muslim, collectivist, highly masculine and emphasises uncertainty avoidance culture. The culture influenced the female candidates to be relationship-

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oriented. The study agrees that “interaction with networks of relationships”

(Gummesson, 1999) can lead to “mutual commitment and trust that may or may not be achievable” (Morgan & Hunt, 1994). The critical question arises: “with whom are you connected and why?” (Payne et al. 2005).

8.1 Contributions

This thesis provided significant theoretical, methodological and practical contributions. Certainly, it will open new horizons for more investigation to the phenomenon of political marketing to address the gaps which need more investigation, specifically in Arab-Muslim countries.

8.1.1 Theoretical Contributions

Undoubtedly, the first contribution of the study is that it highlighted the practice of political marketing in an Arab-Muslim country. In countries where people take part in decision making through voting, political parties develop their techniques to win elections. Tremendous studies conducted in the U.S. and Europe revealed that political parties were product-, sales- or market-oriented in elections (Lees-

Marshment 2010). The finding of this dissertation reveals that because of the Arab-

Muslim culture, women candidates circumvented the cultural factor by creating relationship networks.

Second, the study provided more understanding of the Arab-Muslim culture, which is collectivist and tribal. The findings revealed that targeting the heads of tribes is a successful strategy in political marketing in a collectivist society. The findings support the works of Hofstede (1990, 1991, and 2001) on the importance of understanding a society’s culture in making decisions. Culture changes, hence, a) the

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informants were aware of the strategies of the political societies to keep them away, b) the informants were aware of the importance of reaching the Head of the tribes and persuade them to motivate the member of the tirbe to vote for them, and c) the informants could reach the male communities and consequently they could promote for their campaigns. In conclusion, the informants were aware of the cultural factor in their campaigns and took action based on their awareness. In general, the culture had positive impact on some of the informants, whereas, some of them found that culture denied them electoral victory.

Third, the findings included empirical evidence that contributes to the debate about political products. The findings support that slogans are influenced by cultural and economic factors, political situation (Lu, 1999) and reflect feminine values

(Dolan et al, 2007).

Fourth, the findings of this study reveal that geographical segmentation is applicable in political marketing. However, it also showed that other forms of segmentations were not applicable because the Governorates and Constituencies are small and homogeneous.

Fifth, the findings of the study focused on the importance of designing the political strategy. The findings support arguments that strategy “requires consideration of many different factors such as the nature of the market, history, culture, governance, stakeholders, competitors, resources and goals” (Lees-

Marshment, 2014).

Sixth, the findings of this research contribute to the debate of stereotype threats. Female candidates were stereotyped to influence their election campaigns.

Therefore, this study supported the stereotype threat theory. According to Aronson, et al. (1998) and Steele et al. (2002), members of stereotype groups often feel extra

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pressure in situations where their behaviour can confirm the negative reputation that their group lacks a valued ability. This study found that informants faced stereotypical threats during their election campaigns and those threats influenced their performances in the election campaigns and their success at the polls.

8.1.2 Methodological Contributions

This study implemented Grounded Theory to construct theory from data. The findings emerged from a systemic process of Grounded Theory. This enabled the researcher to deal with a huge amount of data. It also permitted the researcher to collect and analyse data throughout the coding steps to develop a theory. The area of the GCC including the Kingdom of Bahrain is new in using political marketing in elections. The study did not use any framework to be proved and refuted but provided wide margin of imagination to interpret the behaviour of the sample of the study. Reviewing the political marketing theories provided insights for the researcher to discuss the process of political marketing in the KoB using his personal experience to interpret the behaviour of the informants. Using Grounded Theory in collecting and analysing data was an appropriate strategy to develop a data-driven theoretical explanation for the process of political marketing in Bahrain.

8.1.3 Practical Contributions

This study also contributed to practice in terms of election campaign practices, and political marketing strategies of female candidates in an Arab country; the role of managers in their campaigns; as well as the institutional role of the SCW in the promotion of women participation in politics in Bahrain.

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The findings of this study showed that most of the informants decided to contest the election very late. It therefore implied that female candidates who plan to contest elections in the future should make early preparations.

Similarly, the study showed that the female candidates needed to carefully identify their stakeholders and design strategies to target each group of stakeholders.

Moreover, the female candidates needed to create mutual relationship with all these stakeholders. They also needed to focus on the specific needs and wants of each group and their collective interests, instead of focusing on the voters only.

Additionally, the findings of this study included empirical evidence which showed that the female candidates relied on their relatives to collect marketplace data. It is also suggested that the female candidates need to conduct a formal research to identify the stakeholders’ needs and wants, so that they can design their products to satisfy their stakeholders.

Furthermore, the findings of the study showed that a reason why women were less apparent in media than men was the involvement of newspapers. It is the responsibility of the newspapers to support female candidates which reflected their social responsibility to empower women. One of the most influential strategies to increase the female candidates apparent is to involve them in volunteer activities, which introduced the female candidates to society.

Likewise, the findings showed that the workshops of SCW were theoretical.

There were no practical exercises on how to use the tools and strategies of political marketing. It is therefore, suggested that such workshops in the future should contain practical exercises on how to use the political marketing tools and techniques.

Moreover, the study showed that most of the SCW workshops were from societies which are different from the culture in Bahrain. It is therefore, suggested

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that the workshops should be modified to become suitable for the Arab-Muslim culture.

In addition, the SCW has the responsibility to increase their campaigns to educate voters on the importance of the role of women in parliament through the media. They also need to encourage them to select female candidates. This programme of educating voters should start very early to change the voters’ attitudes towards women in parliament.

Equally, almost all the informants stood for election as independents. The

SCW supported the informants logistically. It is suggested that the female candidates stand to represent the SCW. Representing the SCW gives the female candidates more power to contest against male competitors and the political societies.

Furthermore, the increase in women representation in parliament was less than the ambition of the SCW, the women and other stakeholders who supported women in politics. Therefore, the SCW should design a strategy to focus on young girls from universities who are interested in politics. These young girls can be trained and prepared to be candidates in the future.

Additionally, the SCW should set standards in selecting female candidates for parliamentary representation based on criteria such as: qualification, work experience, political knowledge and personality of the candidates. Only the female candidates who successfully meet these requirements should be involved in training programmes.

It is also the responsibility of the SCW to encourage researchers to conduct studies in political marketing. Research should be used to first investigate the factors that hinder female candidates from winning elections and representing their

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constituencies in parliament. Subsequently, the SCW can use those findings to draw the attention of stakeholders to the case of women underrepresentation in parliament.

Lastly, managers and campaign team members of the female candidates are key to their success during elections. Providing training for the managers builds their capacity and enables them to function efficiently in promoting the female candidates.

This in turn saves time, money and efforts.

8.2 Limitations

This study had some limitations. The first limitation was that the data were collected in the period between September and December 2014. It would have been more relevant if the data collection started earlier to enable the researcher to accumulate more data about the dynamics of female candidates and other players in the electoral process.

Second, data for the study was collected from two sources; interviews and documents; whereas collecting data from observation could provide more reliable data from the scene and expose the true behaviour of the informants. Observation is an unobtrusive method of data collection. Hence, it is recommended that future studies use observation as one of the methods of data collection.

Third, panic was observed in how the informants disseminated their personal data. This was an obstacle to the researcher during the communication process with the informants and in the process of obtaining their permissions to conduct interviews. For instance, a week after conducting the interview, one informant requested the researcher to sign a pledge not to use the data for any purpose other than the research.

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Fourth, the findings of the study did not cover the whole scene of the parliamentary election since it is restricted to the behaviour of the elements in the sample of the study. However, the study showed that many factors contribute to winning an election; namely, the attitudes of voters, tactics of the political societies and the actions of government.

Fifth, the informants used strategies and techniques of political marketing and implemented frameworks borrowed from some countries. Even though only a few of them made their way to the parliament, it is hard to assume that the strategies of the informants who won or informants who lost the election of 2014 was due to its effectiveness or ineffectiveness. In fact, many other cultural factors played a key role in the election campaigns and helped informants reserve their seats in parliament.

8.3 Avenues for Future Research

Some questions arose for further research from this study. First, Muharraq

Governorate is where the first boys’ and girls’ schools were founded. This gives the

Governorate advantage due to a long history of education. In the light of this long history of education, why were women not elected into the Parliament from that region?

Second, the study showed that female candidates in tribal, Arab-Muslim societies develop relationship-orientated election culture. More studies are needed to confirm the phenomenon in some other GCC or similar environments.

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8.4 Conclusion

This study investigated the strategies and techniques used by female candidates in the 2014 Parliamentary Election in the KoB. The aim was to discover the orientation of the female candidates in their political marketing.

The study revealed that the female candidates were relationship-oriented.

Data showed that the female candidates were controlled by Arab-Muslim culture.

The culture of the Kingdom of Bahrain is characterised by tribalism, collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance. The female candidates reacted to the culture and this enabled them to create relation networks that supported them in their election campaigns.

The female candidates faced several challenges during their election campaigns. The most challenging obstacle encountered by the female candidates was stereotype threats. On the other hand, there were opportunities for the female candidates due to the boycott of the election by some political societies.

Notably, every society has its culture and some of these cultures may or may not influence the behaviour of people. Understanding the culture of the society generates better understanding of the behaviour of its people. Hence, since this study explored the impact of Arab-Muslim culture on the female candidates, culture is thus the key to understanding the behaviour of female candidates in an election in an

Arab-Muslim country.

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APPENDICES Appendix A

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Appendix B Letter to the Informants

Memo and Categories Development

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Appendix C

Open coding for one transcription

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Appendix D

Open Coding for all Transcriptions

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Appendix E

Generated Codes

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Appendix F

Legibility to run for Election

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Appendix G

Governorates and Constituencies in 2014

Governorates and Constituencies of the Kingdom of Bahrain in 2014 Parliamentary election

Constituencies of Asemah Governorate.

Source: Directorate of Elections and Referendum, 2014

Constituencies of Muharraq Governorate

Source: Directorate of Elections and Referendum, 2014.

Constituencies of Shamalyeh Governorate

Source: Directorate of Elections and Referendum, 2014

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Figure 5.9 Constituencies of Janubeyah Governorate

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Appendix I

Law by Decree No. 14 for 2002

Exercising Political Rights

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Appendix J

Candidates who stood for 2nd round of 2014 Parliamentary Election

Vote share Vote st in 1 share in Govern. Con. Name nd Result round 2 round 1 Adil A. Rahman Al Asomi 47.46% 54.5% Won Lost Khalid Yusuf Sulaibeekh 34.22% 45.5% 2 Ahmed A. Wahid Qaratah 34.34% 60.3% Won Lost Al Sayed Hashim A. Ghafar Al Alawi 23.9% 39.7% 3 Adil Hameed A. Husain Jafar 24% 65.02% Won Lost Ali Abbas A. Abdullah Shamtoot 29.08% 34.98% 4 A. Rahman Rashid Bo Mjaid 42.58% 59.55% Won Lost Ebrahim Abdulla Al Manai 17.72% 40.45% 5 Naser A. Redha Al Qaseer 35.98% 55.6% Won

Lost Wafa Omran Ajoor 22.92% 44.4% 6 Ali Hasan Al Otaish 41.78% 69.3% Won

Asemah Lost Abdullah A. Alqader Al Kuheji 33.57% 30.7% 7 Osama A. Hameed Al Khajah 32.9% 60.4% Won Lost Zainab A. Ameer Ebrahim 24.64% 39.6% 9 Mohammad Jafar Abbas 34.46% 62.27% Won Lost Ebrahim Ali Mohammad Al Osfoor 39.12% 37.73% 10 Nabeel Abdullah Al Buluchi 19.1% 55.97% Won Lost Ali Mohammad Isa Ishaqi 16.51% 44.03%

1 Ali Isa Bufersin 23.57% 54.18% Won Lost Saadi Mohammad Abdullah 29.83% 45.82% 2 Ebrahim Jumaah Al Hamadi 30.26% 51.41% Won Lost A. Al Munaem Mohammad Al Eid 26.64% 48.59% 3 Jamal Ali Bu Hasan 21.58% 52.31% Won Lost

Ahmad Sanad Al Bin Ali 18.78% 47.69% 5 Mohammad Hasan Al Jowder 20.46% 61.2% Won Lost Khalid Saleh Bu Inq 20.34% 38.8%

Muharraq 6 Abbas Isa Al Madhi 38.83% 52.92% Won Lost Nabeel Ahmad Al Asheri 38.41% 47.08% 7 Ali Yaqoob Al Muqlah 17.12% 50.55% Won Lost Nasir Abdullah Al Fadalah 16.33% 49.45%

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Appendix K

Candidates who won the 2014 parliamentary election

Source: Al Wasat, 30 November, 2014, No. 4467.

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Appendix L

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