Council of Representatives (Bahrain)

The Council of Representatives (Majlis an-nuwab), sometimes translated as the "Chamber of Deputies", is the name given to the lower house of the Bahraini National Assembly, the national legislative body of Bahrain. The council was created by the 2002 Constitution of Bahrain and consists of forty members elected by universal suffrage. Members are elected for four-year terms from single-member constituencies using a two-round system, with a second round being held of the top two candidates if no candidate receives 50% of the vote in the first round. Candidates must be Bahraini citizens and at least 30 years old. The forty seats of the Council of Representatives together with the forty royally-appointed seats of the Consultative Council form the Bahraini National Assembly. The last election for the council was the 2022 Bahraini general election held on 12 November 2018, with the runoff on 19 November. Following the election, Ahmed bin Salman Al-Musallam was on 12 December 2022 elected chairman of the council. Politics of Bahrain The first election under the 2002 Constitution was the 2002 Bahraini general election, which was boycotted by the Shia Islamist Al Wefaq, the country's largest political party, as well as the left-wing National Democratic Action Society, the Nationalist Democratic Rally Society, and the radical Shia Islamist Islamic Action Society. They claimed that the 2002 Constitution gave too much power to the unelected Consultative Council, and demanded a reform of the constitution. Although all candidates ran as independents due to the ban on political parties, six political societies gained representation in the Council of Representatives. The Islamic Forum and al Asalah both won six seats, Rabita al-Islami won three seats, the Shura Society and the National Democratic Assembly both won two seats, whilst al Meethaq won one. At the 2006 Bahraini general election, the four parties that boycotted the 2002 elections fielded candidates.