ELECTION HIGHLIGHTS NO. 5: SHAIKH ISA QASSEM

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MANAMA 001870

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/31/2016
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PHUM BA POL
SUBJECT: ELECTION HIGHLIGHTS NO. 5: SHAIKH ISA QASSEM
INVOLVEMENT, WEB SITE CLAMPS

Classified By: DCM Susan L. Ziadeh for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Leading Shi'a cleric Shaikh Isa Qassem
continued to actively endorse participation in the elections,
including in a district in the Central Governorate known to
support a continued Shi'a boycott of the political system.
Al Wifaq president Shaikh Ali Salman November 2 assured
liberals that an Al Wifaq bloc in the parliament would not
endanger civil liberties by promoting an Islamist political
or social agenda. A number of web sites were blocked October
30 on the justification that they featured material that
violated the High Criminal Court ban on publishing any
information about the investigation of the Al Bandar case.
Liberal Al Muntada Society initiated a round of five debates
October 30 for candidates of the Manama Governorate on a
range of issues, but the debate was not well attended and
candidates presented their platforms rather than engaging in
true debate. End summary.


2. (C) SHAIKH ISA QASSEM INTERVENTION: Leading Shi'a cleric
Shaikh Isa Qassem planned to visit the sixth district of the
Central Governorate November 2, which includes several towns
that are predominantly Shi'a. Two of these towns have a
particularly large number of supporters of the Haq Movement
(a few thousand of the approximately 9,500 voters),which has
maintained its rejectionist views and is encouraging voters
to boycott the elections. Al Wifaq president Shaikh Ali
Salman visited the area recently but was not successful in
prevailing on voters to participate. Al Wifaq fears that an
effective election boycott from these two towns could drain
enough support from Al Wifaq candidate and Shi'a cleric
Shaikh Haider Al Sitri, who is well-known in the community
for his anti-government activism in the 1990's. This could
set the stage for the reelection of current MP Mohamed Al
Shaikh, who is also Shi'a and effectively championed the
concerns of his constituents during his four years in
parliament. Al Wifaq has targeted his seat and those of
other Shi'as who went against the 2002 boycott and are
therefore thought by some to have betrayed the interests of
the larger Shi'a community.


3. (SBU) For the third consecutive Friday sermon October 27,
Shaikh Isa spoke out against continuing the boycott and in
favor of participation. He said, "Boycotts and participation
are both political mechanisms of the opposition. The boycott
was tested for four years and the result was that it failed.
Participation should not be viewed as the lack of opposition,
but as another political mechanism that the opposition uses
and expects to yield positive results. There is no tool that
is more productive than participation in elections."


4. (SBU) AL WIFAQ BLOC INTENTIONS: Al Wifaq president
Shaikh Ali Salman November 2 publicly reassured liberals in
Bahrain that an Al Wifaq bloc in the parliament would not
attempt to curb civil liberties or impose the hijab (head
scarf) on the society. He reaffirmed that Al Wifaq was not
in favor of the establishment of a committee to promote
virtue and to crack down on "sinful" practices, along the
lines of the Saudi religious police.


5. (SBU) BLOCKED WEB SITES, BANDARGATE: Minister of
Information Dr. Mohamed Abdul Ghaffar announced October 30
his decision to block seven web sites that posted material
that was prohibited by law. In his statement he referred to
the press and publications law of 2002, which has not been
formally implemented by the GOB but has been used
periodically to justify government restrictions on the media,
but he did not detail what the specific materials were that
violated the law. The following day the acting director of
press and publications at the Ministry stated that the web
sites violated the High Criminal Court decision to ban the
publication of any information related to the investigation
of the Al Bandar case. One of the blocked web sites was that
of Mahmoud Al Yousif, a moderate blogger featuring a diverse
range of topics of public interest on his web site
www.mahmood.tv. Al Yousif recently started a button campaign
called "Just Bahraini" (justbahraini.org) featuring buttons
with the message "No Shi'i, No Sunni, Just Bahraini!" to
counter sectarian messages in Bahrain. There were reports
that Al Yousif's web site was back online by November 2.


6. (SBU) PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES: Liberal, secular Al Muntada
Society, headed by Jamal Fakhro, Shura Council Financial and
Economic Affairs committee chairman, opened a series of
parliamentary debates October 30, beginning with seven of the
nearly fifty candidates from the Manama governorate, one of
whom was a woman and three of whom were opposition
candidates. Political issues were the focus of this first
debate of a scheduled five, one for each governorate. Future
debates will focus on the economy (Muharraq Governorate),

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civil liberties (Northern Governorate),press freedom
(Central Governorate),and public services (Southern
Governorate). According to reports, attendance was low and
candidates took advantage of the time to present their
campaign platform rather than debate fellow candidates.


7. (SBU) Columnist Sawsan Al Shaer wrote November 2 in
Arabic daily Al Watan that she wonders why the large Sunni
Islamic societies Al Minbar (Muslim Brotherhood) and Al Asala
(Salafi) refused to participate in the debate sponsored by Al
Muntada. She criticized their limited mindset stating that
they only reach out to like-minded voters rather than seeking
to represent all segments of the society in their respective
districts. Al Shaer wrote, "They have either lost hope of
attracting others (to their message) or they are afraid of
confrontation. So either they have low self confidence or
they don't care about people who are different than they are.
This is a mistake that even radical Shi'a blocs avoid, while
these two societies ignore the issue, even though the duty of
a member of parliament is to represent all citizens in the
district and not just one segment."


8. (SBU) CANDIDATE CODE OF CONDUCT: Bahrain Transparency
Society (BTS) held a meeting to discuss a code of conduct for
candidates October 26 at which approximately 20 parliamentary
candidates, among other society representatives were in
attendance. The purpose of the meeting was to generate
discussion about the code of conduct's points and solicit
ideas for amendments to the pre-drafted document. According
to Dr. Jasim Al Ajmi, BTS president, the society has
incorporated changes based on the feedback from candidates
and society representatives, and will present the updated
code of conduct to candidates November 4 for a public signing
ceremony.


9. (SBU) OBSERVATION: Unnamed sources revealed October 28
that the High Commission for Elections is studying requests
from international organizations to monitor the elections.
BTS president Al Ajmi confirmed that two international
organizations have requested to monitor. Regarding local
observers, High Commission for Elections Judge Khalid Ajaj
said November 2 that four civil society groups had applied
thus far to monitor the elections. The deadline for
submitting requests is November 10. The Ministry of Justice
sponsored a two-day workshop beginning November 1 for those
interested in monitoring the elections. Attendance on the
first day was reportedly very low. Ajaj attributed the low
turnout to late notification of civil society organizations
prior to the start of the workshop and the fact that some
NGOs felt that participation might compromise their
reputation for being independent and neutral.


10. (SBU) CLERIC AND JOURNALIST CANDIDATES: Candidates
demanded October 29 that clerics who are also running for
office be suspended from giving Friday prayer sermons until
after the elections. This demand was in response to an
October 28 statement by Shaikh Salman Bin Isa Al Khalifa, the
head of the board of directors for the Sunni Awqaf Endowment,
which assigns Sunni clerics to particular mosques, that the
Awqaf would not enforce a suspension on clerics who are
candidates. Instead, due to a shortage of clerics, the Awqaf
would rotate them to a mosque outside the district in which
they are running for election to prevent them from using
their sermons to promote their campaign. However, candidates
insisted that a rotation still violates the Ministry of
Islamic Affairs directive banning the delivery of Friday
sermons by any candidate in the election.


11. (SBU) Bahrain Journalists Association called on all
reporters and columnists who are also taking part in the
election to suspend their work in the press until after the
election, so they will not use their access to the press for
unfair advantage. Similarly, BTS president Al Ajmi confirmed
that BTS will call for journalists to sign a code of ethics
related to the election, including a prohibition on
journalists and media personalities from participating in an
election campaign because it will affect their neutrality in
reporting and expressing opinion.


12. (C) COMMENT: Election activity continued to expand
during the first full week following the Muslim Eid Al Fitr
holiday. The number of campaign posters and billboards on
the side of the road has increased significantly. Candidates
continued to formally kick off their campaigns and open their
campaign tents for visitors this week. Even though there is
increased activity in the tents and on the street, the
interest in a potentially substantive activity addressing
platforms and real issues, such as the Al Muntada-sponsored
debate, was disappointingly low. Unconfirmed reports
alleging that candidates are buying votes for amounts ranging

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from 20 BD ($53) to 100 BD ($265) are common, but there have
yet to be any official violations issued by the Ministry of
Justice. BTS continues to document violations, the large
majority of which to date are violations of the guidelines
for placing posters and billboards.

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