’s opposition and the 2014 Parliamentary Elections

Bahrain’s opposition and the 2014 Parliamentary Elections

Brief

Bahrain’s national democratic opposition societies will currently not be partaking in the 2014 parliamentary elections. Although this is not the preferred position, due to their ongoing insistence of working within the system proactively for political reform, a lack of positive movements from the authorities render this position unavoidable. The powers of the elected parliament have in fact regressed during the past four years, and other outstanding concerns remain unaddressed. Meanwhile human rights violations remain flagrant and senior opposition figures continue to be held behind bars, many of whom should be accommodated into a political process. The Bahrain Government suffers from an acute crisis of legitimacy and the opposition must work to alter this, without alienating the people of Bahrain who have committed themselves to democratic change.

Background

Al Wefaq National Islamic Society came into inception in 2001 following the National Action Charter that permitted opposition political societies. A founding core of the society is to promote democratic reform through the transition to a genuine constitutional monarchy, engaging within the system to do so. It did not participate in the 2002 parliamentary elections, following the King’s reneging on the National Action Charter with the unilateral imposing of a new constitution that granted little power to the elected chamber of Parliament1.

However, in 2006 did take part in the elections gaining 16 of the 40 seats2. In 2010 they gained two further seats affirming its position as the largest bloc in the parliament3.

In February 2011 mass protests took place across Bahrain, calling for greater democracy. They were brutally crushed4; to this date more than 1005 protesters have been killed either in detention or by heavy-handed violence from the security forces. In response all 18 of Al Wefaq’s MP’s resigned from parliament, refusing to legitimise the repression of peaceful protests6.

Along with the treatment of protesters, Al Wefaq has complained over a lack of powers held by the elected chamber of parliament, with the power of veto offered to both the unelected council and the King himself. Furthermore, their MP’s, both whilst in and out of parliament, criticized the inability to hold ministers to account, particularly over issues relating to corruption. In addition to the nature of the parliament Al Wefaq has described the electoral system as “gerrymandered”, in order to ensure the opposition can never take hold of a majority in parliament.

1 http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67553/jane-kinninmont/bahrains-re-reform-movement?page=show 2 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/26/AR2006112600280.html 3 http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/23/us-bahrain-elections-fb-idUSTRE69M0TO20101023 4 http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/02/201121714223324820.html 5 http://www.tasnimnews.com/English/Home/Single/373903 6 http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=44626

Al Wefaq National Islamic Society – October 2014 1 Bahrain’s opposition and the 2014 Parliamentary Elections

An election is not dialogue

Since the beginning of the current political crisis in 2011, Al Wefaq has regularly pushed for a political dialogue with the authorities7, in order to reach agreement over a reform plan that can provide a solution. There have been various attempts at doing this, with each having failed to ever truly get off the ground. Whilst there are some within the royal family who accept the need to negotiate a solution, the powerful hard-line bloc, centred on the Prime Minister, have worked to undermine any talks by widening human rights abuses. For them, the only solution to the crisis is repression of the popular demands.

Previous dialogue failures

• March 2011 – Following 3 weeks of protest, Bahrain’s Crown Prince came forward and proposed a 7 point plan to discuss with the opposition8. The plan included: 1. Parliament will full powers 2. A government that represents the will of the people 3. Fair voting constituencies 4. Citizenship issues 5. Anti-corruption 6. Selling of state properties 7. Addressing sectarianism These seven principles are in fact very close to the general demands of the Bahraini people and make up the backbone of the oppositions “ Document” that outlines their aspirations for a democratic Bahrain9. Therefore the opportunity was positively responded to by the opposition, but this chance was immediately taken away when the following day the King invited Saudi troops into the country to crush protests10.

• July 2011 – The first “national consensus dialogue” began in July 2011 following the ending of the emergency martial law. It was clear from early on that this would not be following on from the principles of the Crown Prince and failed after just a few days. The opposition received just 5 seats at the table, out of the 300 in total, revealing how heavily weighted it would be against the opposition. Just a few months later, during the opening of the 66th General Assembly, President Obama called for “meaningful dialogue” in Bahrain11, as a signal that the dialogue of July 2011 was far from realising this.

7 http://alwefaq.net/cms/2014/02/09/26690/ 8 http://alive.in/bahrain/blog/2011/03/13/crown-prince-asserts-that-the-right-of-security-and-safety-is- above-all-other-considerations-and-that-the-legality-to-claim-must-not-be-at-the-expense-of-security- stability/ 9 alwefaq.net/cms/2011/10/12/5934/ 10 www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/world/middleeast/15bahrain.html?pagewanted=all 11 bahrainjdm.hopto.org/2011/09/21/president-obama-calls-for-meaningful-dialogue-and-peaceful-change- for-bahrain/

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• February 2013 – September 2013 – Despite regular calls from the opposition for a dialogue it took 18 months for it to finally arrive back on the agenda. A new “national dialogue” was set up that was much smaller in size and initially provided some promise. However, no agreement was ever reached upon even an agenda or the make-up of the table. More importantly it was portrayed by the Authorities as being between the communities of Bahrain, whilst the Government stands aside and mediates. This was rejected by the opposition who felt the serious power brokers in the country had to be engaged in order for it to be worthwhile. In September 2013, after the arrest of Khalil Almarzooq a leading figure of Al Wefaq, the opposition suspended their involvement and it was formally ended in December 2013.

• January 2014 – Crown Prince re-emerges – At the beginning of this year there was some potential promise when the Crown Prince met with Sheikh , Al Wefaq Secretary General. They agreed to meet to discuss how to reignite a dialogue process, although little progress has since been recorded. The main sticking point has been the failure of the authority as a whole to endorse this process, leaving the Crown Prince in a position of acting on his own behalf, rather than the authority as a whole.

The international community, urging both sides to come together in this regard, has supported the call for dialogue. What is clear is that an electoral process cannot be a substitute for a dialogue. A dialogue is a step outside of the establishment, in order to review best practices and to seek common agreement. An election is nothing more than a continuation of the current system and only legitimises the status quo, rather than challenging it. The people of Bahrain have underlined their rejection of this state of affairs and an election will not fix Bahrain’s problems.

In order for a successful election to take place, a dialogue must come first that can address the issues of why the majority of the population feel unrepresented and alienated by the current system. Although some argue that engaging in parliament will give the opposition the opportunity to lay forward their demands, their experience of 5 years in parliament is contrary to this idea.

1) Weak parliamentary powers

When Al Wefaq withdrew from parliament in 2011 they cited an inability to hold ministers to account. Since then this has taken a further step back. In August 2014 the current parliament voted to weaken itself, agreeing a proposal to change how a Minister can be summoned. Previously only a simple majority was needed, but this is changing to an absolute majority meaning 27 out of the 40 MP’s will be needed in order to summon a Minster for questioning. In addition a commission must also be formed to determine whether or not the question is in fact “valid”12. So whilst the

12 http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:oR5lGWzZwxQJ:m.gulf-daily- news.com/NewsDetails.aspx%3Fnewsid%3D378449+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk (article removed from Gulf Daily News but available as a cached version.)

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powers the parliament held previously were weak, they have now become even weaker, despite promises to make democratic reforms.

Beyond the current attempts to weaken the parliament, the original make-up leaves much to be desired. Bahrain has a bi-cameral electoral system, the elected Council of Representatives and the unelected Shura Council, appointed by royal decree. Both chambers hold equal weight, but the Shura Council is appointed by an unaccountable and unelected government, thereby leaving no space to question the appointments. In practical terms this allows the government to handpick its supporters to sit in the upper house, acting as a stalwart against any legislation coming from the elected chamber. If by any chance a piece of legislation that challenges the government does manage to pass both chambers, it then needs to be ratified by the King, who has the ultimate authority to veto anything. This has lead to many to view the parliament as toothless, with no real powers.

It should also be noted that whilst in democratic systems the government is comprised of the largest representatives in the parliament, the government is completely appointed by the King in Bahrain. This has led to the same government in control for 42 years, headed by the unelected Prime Minister who has held his position for the entirety of that time.

2) Elections to the parliament are flawed

The current voting system that elects MP’s to parliament is designed to avoid an opposition majority. The authorities are aware that were votes fairly distributed it would likely lead to a majority of opposition MP’s, given that Shi’ites make up the majority of the population. This is exemplified with the 2010 parliamentary election in which Al Wefaq received around 64% of the national vote, translating to only 18 out of 40 seats in parliament13. In one district a Sunni candidate received just 750 votes to become elected whilst a Shi’ite candidate received around 17,000 and was elected. This massive discrepancy in voting power is because of along ethnic lines. Not only is this unfair in democratic terms but it is also a sectarian manoeuvre that highlights the discriminatory practices committed by the authorities in Bahrain.

3) Human rights violations are ongoing

Of course the primary reason for the oppositions withdrawal in 2011 was in response to the heavy-handed treatment of peaceful protesters that resulted in the deaths of 5 protesters within the first 3 days. This approach has remained consistent since then. Protesters continue to be attacked with mass tear-gassing, bird shotguns and other weapons that have been used to disperse crowds but are used in a lethal manner to injury or kill protesters.

13 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/2010102475648379231.html

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This has been accompanied with the continuous use of the judicial apparatus to lock away prisoners of conscience. As recently as this month the authorities arrested the human rights activist Maryam Alkhawaja14, a Danish citizen, as she attempted to enter Bahrain to visit her imprisoned Father.

In addition to the growing number of detainees, peaceful opposition leaders such as Ibrahim Shariff, Secretary-General of Waad, has yet to be released since the beginning of the protests in 2011. Such opposition leaders should be incorporated into any political solution, holding an election whilst they are imprisoned is denying the population the democratic right to vote for such individuals.

4) The targeting of Al Wefaq National Islamic Society

In recent months Al Wefaq has become a serious target of the state repression. Previously Al Wefaq was given space to operate somewhat freely, although leading figures and Jawad Fairooz15 were arrested in the early days of the protests, but released a few months later. However in the past 12 months, Al Wefaq has once again begun to face the repressive force of the state. In September 2013 Khalil Almarzooq, political assistant to the Secretary-General, was arrested and held for more than a month16. After a lengthy trial that concluded in June 2014 he was finally acquitted but his targeting signalled a turning of attention towards Al Wefaq and its leadership. Likewise, the Secretary-General, Sheikh Ali Salman has also faced legal proceedings17.

In July 2014, the Ministry of Justice made a court request to formally suspend all Al Wefaq activities, citing bureaucratic justifications18. However, this move was widely touted as another attempt to clamp down on opposition activity and to increase the pressure in the run up to the elections19.

This behaviour towards the leading opposition society has done nothing to increase confidence in the run-up to the elections. The international community, to be taken up by all sides, in order to create a positive environment for talks going forward, called upon “Confidence building measures”. For their part, the opposition released its “non-violence declaration”20 and has continued this policy of condemning all and any violent acts committed in the name of the opposition. They also produced an “anti-hatred” document to curb the stem of sectarianism from either side. In return Al Wefaq have received further targeting and repression. This makes it even harder to participate in an electoral process that is already deeply flawed.

5) The problem of legitimising an illegitimate process

14 http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/02/maryam-alkhawaja-arrest-bahrain-us-uk 15 http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/06/12/bahrain.unrest/ 16 http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/bahrain-khalil-al-marzouq-arrested-2013-09-18 17 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-25542387 18 http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/20/uk-bahrain-politics-alwefaq-idUKKBN0FP0EO20140720 19 http://alwefaq.net/cms/2014/07/21/31498/ 20 http://alwefaq.net/cms/2012/11/07/7152/

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Bahrain’s opposition plays an important role in leading the country’s youth towards a peaceful path of protest and rejecting violence. This is not always an easy task given the level of repression faced by young activists in Bahrain, but it is certain that had the opposition not played this role there would have been a further descent into sectarian and violent chaos. Without a serious process of reform taking place prior to an election, the opposition risks its position amongst the youth in inspiring them towards non-violent action. Therefore there is a clear national element to ensuring it is not seen to be legitimising a process that many in the country deem completely illegitimate.

Conclusion

• Al Wefaq to not participate in 2014 Parliamentary Elections • Authorities aware that lack of progress would result in this outcome • Al Wefaq still committed to engaging within the system for change • Decision focuses on o Weakened parliament o Unfair voting system o Ongoing human rights violations and lack of reforms o Attacks on Al Wefaq o Need to keep national unity

The decision to not take part in the 2014 parliamentary election is far from an easy one, and is worth having a serious debate around. Indeed the decision to resign from parliament in 2011 was equally difficult given that Al Wefaq is a society that believes in positive engagement, moderate reform and cooperation with all who wish to see a peaceful and stable Bahrain.

For more than two years Al Wefaq has been warning about its potential non-participation should the above issues not be addressed, giving the authorities plenty of time to enact a serious process of reform. With this not having happened it leaves Al Wefaq no option but to refuse its participation in the 2014 election. This decision should not be considered as a fixed one, but is subjective to the ongoing situation.

Al Wefaq is aware that there are calls within the international community for participation but it boils down to a simple question as to whether it would benefit or harm the search for stability in Bahrain. Given the above objections, the only conclusion that can be reached, for the time being, is that participating in the election will achieve nothing whilst serving to create further problems for Bahrain.

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