# 2018 Bahraini general election

General elections were held in Bahrain in November and December 2018 to elect the 40 members of the Council of Representatives. The first round of voting was on Saturday, 24 November, with a second round in 31 constituencies on Saturday, 1 December. A municipal poll coincided with the parliamentary vote.
The elections were considered to be a sham, as they followed a government crackdown on dissent that included prohibiting members of dissolved opposition groups from running. Following the 2011 Bahraini protests, all 18 Al Wefaq members on the Council resigned, and were barred from contesting the subsequent by-elections. Since 2011, authorities have imprisoned hundreds of dissidents, including Al Wefaq leader Sheikh Ali Salman, and stripped many of Bahraini citizenship. Al Wefaq boycotted the 2014 Bahraini general election.
The two main opposition groups, the Shiite Al-Wefaq and secular Waad, were barred from fielding candidates in 2018, prompting renewed calls for a boycott. A court banned Al Wefaq in 2016 for "harbouring terrorism", inciting violence and encouraging demonstrations which threatened to spark sectarian strife. On 17 July 2016, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television and international print media reported that Bahrain's highest court dissolved Al Wefaq and liquidated the group's funds.

## Electoral system

The 40 members of the Council of Representatives were elected from single-member constituencies using a two-round system; if no candidate received a majority of the vote in the first round, a second round was held.

## Constituencies

Each governorate is divided into a number of constituencies for the election for the Council of Representatives. Each constituency is listed as area 1, area 2 etc. Each constituency elects one member. Only Bahraini nationals are entitled to stand for and to vote at elections.
| Governorate | Population (2010) | Non-nationals (2010) | Nationals (2010) | Divisions (2018) |
| Capital Governorate | 329,510 | 261,921 | 67,589 | 10 |
| Muharraq Governorate | 189,114 | 86,870 | 102,244 | 8 |
| Northern Governorate | 276,949 | 82,887 | 194,062 | 12 |
| Southern Governorate | 101,456 | 68,525 | 32,931 | 10 |
| Other | 11,237 | 11,237 | |
| Total | 1,234,571 | 666,172 | 568,399 | 40 |
| Source: CIO |||||

## Campaign

Candidates had to apply between 17 and 21 October 2018, with 293 registering to contest the 40 seats.

## Results

Nine of the 40 constituencies were decided in the first round, with the other 31 going to a runoff. According to the government, voter turnout in the first round was 67%, an increase from 53% in the 2014 elections. However, the opposition claimed that the real voter turnout did not exceed 28%-30%.

### List of elected members

| Constituency | Elected member |
| Capital First | Abel Abdulrahman Mohammed Ahmed Alasoomi |
| Capital Second | Sawsan Mohamed Abdulrahim Kamal |
| Capital Third | Mamdooh Abbas Ahmad Alsaleh |
| Capital Fourth | Ammar Ahmed Ghuloom Albannai |
| Capital Fifth | Ahmed Sabah Salman Alsalloom |
| Capital Sixth | Masooma Hasan Abdulhusain Abdulrahim |
| Capital Seventh | Zainab Abdulameer Khalil Ebrahim |
| Capital Eighth | Fadhel Abbas Ali Isa Alsawad |
| Capital Ninth | Ammar Husain Ebrahim Abbas |
| Capital Tenth | Ali Mohamed Isa Abdulla Ishaqi |
| Muharraq First | Hamad Ahmed Mohamed Saleh Alkooheji |
| Muharraq Second | Ebrahim Khalid Ebrahim Alnefaei |
| Muharraq Third | Mohamed Isa Ahmed Abdulla Ali |
| Muharraq Fourth | Ghazi Abdulaziz Yusuf Jaafar Almurbati |
| Muharraq Fifth | Khaled Saleh Ahmed Buanaq |
| Muharraq Sixth | Hisham Ahmed Yusuf Ahmed Alasheeri |
| Muharraq Seventh | Ammar Sami Ali Hasan Qambar |
| Muharraq Eighth | Yusuf Ahmed Hasan Hohamed Althawadi |
| Northern First | Kaltham Abdulkareem Jassim |
| Northern Second | Fatema Abbas Qasim Mohamed |
| Northern Third | Abdulla Ebrahim Mubarak Khalil Aldoseri |
| Northern Fourth | Ghazi Faisal Hasan Husain al Rahma |
| Northern Fifth | Sayed Falah Hashem Falah Abdulla |
| Northern Sixth | Abdulnabi Salman Ahmed Naser |
| Northern Seventh | Ahmed Yusuf Ahmed Aldamestani |
| Northern Eighth | Abdulla Khalifa Juma Abdulkarim Althawadi |
| Northern Ninth | Yusuf Zainalabddin Mohamed Zainal |
| Northern Tenth | Basem Salman Mohamed Salman Erhama Almalki |
| Northern Eleventh | Mohamed Khalifa Abdulla Husain Buhamood |
| Northern Twelfth | Mahmood Maki Salman Albahrani |
| Southern First | Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed Saad Alaamer |
| Southern Second | Isa Ali Jamal Alquadhi |
| Southern Third | Ahmed Yusuf Abdulqader Mohamed Alansari |
| Southern Fourth | Ali Ahmed Ali Zayed |
| Southern Fifth | Fawzia Zainal |
| Southern Sixth | Abdulrazaq Abdulla Ali Hattab |
| Southern Seventh | Ali Majed Ali Hasan Almajed Alnoaimi |
| Southern Eighth | Mohamed Ebrahim Ali Muhana Alsisi Albuainain |
| Southern Ninth | Bader Saood Jabur Abdulla Aldoseri |
| Southern Tenth | Isa Yusuf Abdulla Ahmed Aldoseri |
| Source: Elections 2018 Archived 2018-12-23 at the Wayback Machine, Elections 2018 Archived 2018-12-03 at the Wayback Machine ||