MANAMA, May 11: Religious groups emerged the major winners and women the losers in Bahrain’s first local elections since 1957, an indication of the likely outcome of the vote to restore parliament in October.

“Islamist movements have after long years of work ensured a strong presence and a popular base” among the Sunnis as well as the Shias, admitted Abdul Rahman al-Nuaimi, leader of the main liberal political group on the Gulf archipelago.

Candidates linked to Shia groups swept 20 of the 30 council seats in Thursday’s first round of the municipal vote.

In a country where political parties remain banned, most of the winners were connected to the Shia-based Islamic National Accord Association (INAA) or the Sunni-based Islamic National Forum Association (INFA).

Nuaimi, of the Association for National Democratic Action (ANDA), noted that the Shias in particular had campaigned with the aim of “taking the lion’s share (of votes) and of confirming their confessional representation” as an estimated 65 percent of the population.

“The mobilization of the Islamic vote and the inability of the democratic groups to fight the (electoral) battle” contributed to the results, Nuaimi said.

He also accused the conservatives of forcing their wives to vote for their candidates and not women who were standing for election for the first time.

More women voted than men — 51 percent against 49 percent — but not one of the 31 women candidates won a seat to the five councils. Official turnout was 51.28 percent of the 238,636 registered voters.

“We had no illusions” about the outcome of the polls, leftist leader Ahmad Dhawadi said.

“The Islamist current is powerful in the country, and it is capable of rallying supporters through mosques and clerics,” said Dhawadi, who heads the Democratic Progressive Forum (DPF).

“Religion remains a strong influence in our society which, despite having made progress, remains attached to the past,” said Dhawadi, though he stressed that he had “not despaired” of a better outcome in the October 24 polls to reinstate the parliament scrapped in 1975.

INAA leader Sheikh Ali Salman argued that Islamist groups, particularly his own, had earned their strong showing in Thursday’s first round.

“We had no need to test ourselves. The balance of power was already clear years ago when prisons were filled with INAA (activists),” he said, referring to hundreds of Islamists arrested during anti-government unrest in 1994-1999 and freed after King Hamad kick-started a reform process early last year.

“That this (pro-democracy activism) should be translated at the ballot box was predictable,” said Salman, adding that his grouping’s success would “serve the nation and the reform” process.

But he said it was “premature” to tell whether his group, which has expressed reservations about the constitutional amendments under which the elections are being held, would take part in the parliamentary vote.

A final round of municipal voting will take place on Thursday in 20 of 50 constituencies where the first round failed to turn up a winner with more than 50 percent of the vote.

The two candidates with the highest number of votes will face off. —AFP