Bahrain: First woman elected to municipal council

Bahrain has made history by electing its first woman to a municipal council, as the country went to the polls for the second time in a week. Independent candidate Fatima Salman sealed victory in the second round of voting in Muharraq against male opponent Mohammed Abdulla Al Senan. She is the first woman to be directly elected to public office since Bahrain's parliament and five municipal councils were formed in 2002. Latifa Al Gaoud, the first woman to make it to parliament in 2006, was re-elected again this year - but ran unopposed both times.

However, Dr Munira Fakhro - who was hoping to become only the second woman in parliament - narrowly missed out yesterday after losing to independent candidate Isa Ali Al Qadhi.

Neither she nor fellow National Democratic Action Society (Waad) candidate Ebrahim Sharif made it through the second round - meaning the leftist opposition group again misses out on a place in parliament.

Meanwhile, Sabah Al Dossary - another woman hoping to make it onto the Muharraq Municipal Council - failed in her election bid.

Nine seats in parliament and 16 on municipal councils were decided in yesterday's second round of elections, with vote counting continuing late into the night.

Among those holding his breath was Sharkh Al Dossary, who polled 783 votes despite asking supporters not to vote for him because he wanted to withdraw from the parliament race.

Former Muharraq Municipal Council chairman Mohammed Hammada was among the high-profile losers in the second round.-

Manama: Sun, 31 Oct 2010