Sunni and Shiite Islamist candidates have clinched 19 of the 40 seats in Bahrain's legislative assembly in the first parliamentary elections in the small Gulf state since 1973. Eighteen independent candidates — 11 Sunni and seven Shiite — also won seats along with three liberals — two Sunni and one Shiite, according to the final results following two rounds of voting which ended Thursday. Fourteen of the Islamist winners are Sunni. Seven are affiliated to the National Islamic Forum, a political association of the Muslim Brotherhood, and an equal number are from the fundamentalist Salafi current. The remaining Islamist winners are Shiites. Two women candidates who made it to Thursday's second round run-off vote failed to enter Bahrain's first elected legislative assembly since the Gulf state's parliament was scrapped in 1975.
The important thing at this point isn't that there are Islamists elected in Bahrain, but that there are elections at all. If voters get tired of Salafists trying to run every aspect of their lives, they'll be free to throw them out. What'll be telling, over the course of the next five or ten years, is whether this is "one man, one vote, one time," or if the idea of voting for who's going to run the country takes root. If there's an attempt to overthrow the government, or more likely the ruling house, then they'll have to go back to square one and start all over again. It'll be interesting to see Salafists trying to play nice with others, but it won't be unheard of. Pakland has a democracy, too, remember, at least of a sort. |