Islamists in Bahrain win majority of parliamentary seats

Islamists candidates in Bahrain have won the first parliamentary elections held in Bahrain since three decades. Results of the Parliamentary elections which was announced by the Bahraini government yesterday at dawn unveiled the 16 candidates won at a majority, while elections will be repeated in other 20 election divisions because candidates in these circles did not get necessary votes qualifying them to win.

Two women candidates in the southern and northern election circles, Latifa Muhammad Ahmad al-Qaoud and Fawzeyah Ahmad Jasem achieved results that enabling them to join the elections of the second round to be held on Thursday.

The results also showed that the Islamists, Sunni and Shiite have strongly joined the parliament. In the first phase of these elections five Sunni Islamists have won including two chairpersons for two political societies.

Meantime, other Islamists have become qualified for the second round of the elections.

In the third rank came 13 independent candidates both Shiite and Sunni.

For its part, the government of Bahrain has announced it has no concerns on that the Bahrain islamists have won the elections. Bahrain's crown prince Sheikh Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa said "we are all Muslims and therefore this does not concern me ( the Islamists are winning )." Analysists considered that the boycott of the main traditional opposition forces of the elections paved the way before the Islamic trend especially the "predestination" trend to make strong gains in the parliament.

On the other hand the political societies which boycotted the elections denounced what it called the pressures made by the government on the voters to force them to take part in the elections.

The opposition admitted in a statement that the elections were held fairly and in a civilized way.