ELECTION HIGHLIGHTS 11: ELECTION OBSERVER REPORT,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MANAMA 001984

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/29/2016
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PHUM BA POL
SUBJECT: ELECTION HIGHLIGHTS 11: ELECTION OBSERVER REPORT,
VOTER LISTS, ALLEGATIONS OF IRREGULARITIES

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


1. (C) SUMMARY: In light of suspicions raised in the
general polling center vote count in the Munira Fakhro/Salah
Ali election race, the Election Monitoring Joint Committee's
(EMJC) November 29 preliminary report recommended that for
the December 2 runoffs, election officials at all polling
stations announce full result details to candidates and
monitors before moving ballots to the five governorate
supervisory centers. Munira Fakhro initiated a court
challenge November 29 to the results in her district,
claiming the results had been manipulated. Several NGOs that
had monitors observing the election process voiced concerns
about the lack of transparency in general polling station
results. The High Commission for Elections appeared to have
retreated from its pledge to provide candidates with
post-election voter lists, intended to foster public
confidence in the general polling centers, saying that
posting the lists at the five supervisory centers was
sufficient. End summary.


2. (SBU) EMJC REPORT: The Election Monitoring Joint
Committee (EMJC),consisting of members of Bahrain
Transparency Society (BTS) and Bahrain Human Rights Society
(BHRS),released a preliminary report on the first round of
polling on November 29. The report reaffirmed earlier spot
reports released by EMJC that "the voting process generally
proceeded in an orderly manner with no major incidents that
infringe on voters' rights to freely cast their ballots." It
identified election irregularities, mostly compiled from the
spot reports and technical in nature, but declared that this
did not affect the overall administration of the election.
However, in its number one recommendation "to improve the
transparency and integrity of the second round," it urged the
High Commission for Elections to ensure uniformity and
increased transparency in the announcing of poll results.
The recommendation suggested that election officials announce
the number of voters who cast ballots, the number of valid
and invalid ballots, and a detailed breakdown of votes for
each candidate, at each of the district and general polling
stations before the tallies and ballot boxes were moved to
the supervisory centers. EMJC also recommended that polling
station committees provide observers and candidate
representatives with copies of the official results.


3. (C) Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS) President
Houda Nonoo confirmed for Poloff November 30 that results
were not released to observers in the general polling
centers. Nonoo said that after the results were tallied at
one general station at which BHRWS stationed an observer, an
election official inquired whether any candidate
representatives were present, but none were. In the absence
of a candidate representative, the official did not announce
results to the observers, but departed with the ballot boxes
to drop them at the respective supervisory centers, where the
results were combined with those of the other nine general
polling centers.


4. (C) BTS President and EMJC organizer Dr. Jasim Al Ajmi
also confirmed to Poloff November 30 that results were not
released to observers in the general stations except in one
case in the Southern Governorate where the EMJC observer was
allowed to sit at the vote-count table. In all other cases,
observers sat in an assigned area of the poll center from six
to twelve feet away from the vote-count table. Al Ajmi
confirmed that since no candidate representatives were
available at general stations, results were not announced and
were taken directly to the supervisory centers. He lamented
this poor move on the government's part because now there is
no independent organization that is able to vouch for what
might have happened, if anything, between when the votes were
counted at the voting centers and the posting of the results
at the supervisory centers. Al Ajmi said that the judges
responsible for each station need to be provided with
detailed written instructions; by all appearances, in the
first round instructions were largely verbal.


5. (SBU) President of Public Freedoms Society Mohamed Al
Ansari said publicly November 29 that because the vote count
did not occur entirely in the presence of monitors, NGOs were
not able to report that the vote count was fair and secure,
especially in the case of the general poll centers. He said
that poll center judges confined the monitors to a corner of
the center so that they could not properly perform their
duties to observe the election process and the vote count.


6. (C) VOTER LISTS RELEASED, WELL, SORT OF: Minister of
Justice and High Commission for Elections head Dr. Mohamed Al
Sitri confirmed publicly November 28 that the commission
would provide candidates with lists of names of first round

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voters. The lists were posted in the five supervisory
centers that evening. However, Al Ajmi told Poloff November
30 that he had heard from one of the High Commission judges
that individual candidates would not be provided lists
because the posted lists in the supervisory centers were
sufficient. Al Ajmi expressed his disappointment, saying
that it is not reasonable to think that candidates can go to
the supervisory centers and stand for hours to compare their
pre-election lists with the posted lists. He was dismayed
that suspicion has now been introduced to the process since
the government had previously pledged to provide the lists,
but now it did not deliver.


7. (C) CHALLENGES TO THE RESULTS: On November 29 Waad
candidate Dr. Munira Fakhro mounted a Court of Cassation
challenge to the results in her district in her loss to Al
Minbar candidate Dr. Salah Ali. She was reportedly trailing
by only 14 votes until the votes from the general polling
centers were added. Ali reportedly received nearly 1,200
votes from general polling stations compared to just over 300
for Fakhro. This number put Ali over the 50% mark in the
district, resulting in his victory. Speaking to the press
November 28, Fakhro alleged that the election result had been
manipulated. She said, "I want the authorities to hold a
second round of polling (in her district) for the sake of
transparency." Two other races that faced challenges were
reviewed by the Court of Cassation November 29 but were
rejected as being without merit.


8. (C) COLUMNIST AL SHAER MUTED: Arabic daily Al Watan
columnist Sawsan Al Shaer's editorial intended for the
November 29 issue of the newspaper was not allowed to go to
print. In the piece entitled "Struggle of the Elephants,"
(which she emailed to the Embassy),she encouraged the
"silent majority" in Bahraini society that does not feel
represented by either Sunni or Shia Islamists "to speak up
and defend its interests or it will be pushed further into
the shadows." She began with criticism of the government for
fully supporting the Sunni Islamist Al Asala and Al Minbar
political societies, ostensibly to maintain stability and
security. On the Shia side is Al Wifaq, whose religious
figures pressured the Shia public to support Al Wifaq
candidates. Al Shaer described this situation as a political
struggle between the government and the Ulama Council
(leading Shia religious scholars) carried out on the
political game board through political societies in the
election. The result is that other groups in society such as
women, businessmen, and technocrats are nowhere to be seen.
The struggle in the Council of Representatives will be
sectarian, she wrote, "so neither Al Wifaq nor Al Minbar nor
Al Asala need seats in the (appointed) Shura Council or in
the Cabinet under the guise of the need to maintain stability
and security."


9. (SBU) AL WIFAQ'S APPROACH: In an interview with Arabic
daily Al Wasat, leading Shia political society Al Wifaq
Secretary General and new MP Shaikh Ali Salman said November

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28 that Al Wifaq will not seek to escalate tension in the
parliament. He said that supporters understand Al Wifaq's
role in parliament and know that success in the parliament is
a priority for Al Wifaq. "We care about reinstating the
political, economic, and social rights of the people and not
making headlines in the newspapers." Referring to Al Wifaq's
support for Waad, Salman said, "We need to have liberal MPs
such as Waad's candidates in the new parliament because they
have valuable political experience and, because of their
religious and political positions, they can 'bridge' the gap
between political blocs in the parliament and the
government." He said that Al Wifaq has more items of
agreement with Sunni Islamist political societies Al Asala
and Al Minbar than of disagreement. Salman mentioned that Al
Wifaq may consider conducting primary elections in 2010 to
select candidates for the election due to the high number of
society members who want to run in the elections.


10. (SBU) EARLY SPARS WITH WOMEN: Contrary to Salman's
assertion about not wanting to grab headlines, newly elected
Al Wifaq MP Sayed Abdulla Al A'ali made headlines when he
stated that he favored passing legislation that bans Bahraini
women from working in "male-oriented jobs." He also wants to
ban them from appearing in advertisements wearing revealing
clothing. "This is an Islamist country and it is a disaster
if Bahraini girls are forced to work as dolls," he said. In
addition, Al A'ali proposes that the retirement age for women
be lowered from the current age of 55, which is already lower
than the men's age of 60, because "many women don't work
until that age," and therefore are not eligible for a full
pension.


11. (SBU) In reaction to Al A'ali's comments, Amnesty

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International Bahrain head of campaigns Fawzia Rabea said
that such ideas are anachronistic and are not compatible with
modern Islam. "Women are brought up today encouraged to
participate in public life and politics in order to fight for
their rights. We will not allow (those working against
women's rights) to change our situation in Bahrain. Our
constitution in Bahrain gives us equal rights with men. With
this type of thinking in parliament, we will face big
challenges." Women's Union President Mariam Al Ruwaie said
that these ideas do not agree with the King's reforms that
give women and men the same rights in education and work. "I
am concerned because the parliament has not even convened,
and Mr. Al A'ali is making such comments. But he cannot stop
the women's movement."


12. (U) Official election spokesperson Ahdeya Ahmed modified
upward the participation figure November 28, announcing that
the final official voter turnout was 73.6% in the first round
of voting.

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