With the participation of 94 per cent out of 300 invited delegates by the Chairman of the National Dialogue, the Kingdom of Bahrain entered into a new era of greater transparency and democracy by seeking consensus on national issues through discussions.
This was announced by Isa Abdulrahman, the Official Spokesman for the National Dialogue during a Press conference held immediately after the opening ceremony on Saturday. Abdulrahman, who was joined by the Organising Committee member and a senior judicial officer Khalid Ajaji, told reporters that there was no limit on the number of sessions to discuss the 181 issues submitted participants ahead of time.
Ajaji said that the recommendations or outcomes of the dialogues would be submitted to HM King Hamad bin Isa for necessary Royal Decree on the possible changes to the constitutional amendments, if needed.
The National Dialogue Under the slogan “Our Bahrain, Our Unity” kicked off at a ceremony at Shaikh Isa Cultural Centre in Juffair with the opening remarks by His Excellency Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Dhahrani Chairman of the Representatives Council and Chairman of the National Dialogue.
Al Dhahrani reiterated that all stages of the national dialogue would be transparent and objective, He asserted that the people of Bahrain are facing a historic opportunity to overcome this critical stage through a national dialogue without any preconditions, its ceiling is the consensus among all components of society and its goal is bringing together the different opinions to share views and common denominators that contribute towards further development in all fields.
Al Dhahrani noted that after the conclusion of the dialogue sessions, moderators of the meetings are to submit the results to the Chairman of the National Dialogue, including the points of agreement or disagreement, which are to be submitted by the Chairman to His Majesty the King for reference to the constitutional institutions to take necessary action, each according to its competence.
This came during the opening of the national dialogue, which was held at the Isa Cultural Centre on Saturday morning. During the opening session His Excellency Khalifa Bin Ahmed Al Dhahrani Chairman of the House of Representatives, Chairman of the National Dialogue, presented a speech in which he briefed the attendees on the concept of consensus .The basic principles of a dialogue, organizational aspects along with an explanation of the mechanism of interlocutors were presented by Khalid Ajaji, the topics were reviewed by Isa Abdulrahman the official spokesman for the National Dialogue. The opening has been witnessed by a large audience of invited guests and participants. The National Dialogue sessions are scheduled to commence based on the main themes, on Tuesday evening.
Isa Abdulrahman, the Official Spokesman for the National Dialogue noted that the issues raised in the dialogue are based on four main area i.e. political, economic, social, and rights in addition to a session devoted to foreign residents in Bahrain.
The Spokesperson pointed out that each area consists of sub-themes containing multiple topics that contained all the views put forward by the participants in the dialogue all of which will be discussed by the working groups.
The official spokesman clarified that the political theme includes sub topics, which include political societies and the powers of the Shura and Representatives councils and a government that represents the will of the people and the electoral system, while the economic theme will include sub topics such as boosting economic competitiveness and the level of government services such as health, housing, education and pension systems, governance in public finance management and re-directing of subsidies and contribution to community development.
The Official Spokesman revealed that the social theme will include sub topics that include youth, civil society institutions, security and civil peace, while sub topics of the legal theme will address the rights of women, children and people with special needs, the judiciary system, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and human rights will also be among the topics.
As for dividing interlocutors into task forces and the registration to participate, the Spokesman said that the subjects were divided into main themes, each of which includes sub topics where specific issues will be discussed by teams of up to fifty participants.
He reiterated that for the dialogue to be productive, it has been taken into account that there is a presence by those who represent the issues or the relevant authorities of the sub topic, according to the numbers and standards for each of the representatives of the participating parties. The political societies chose to be represented by five candidates to attend the sub topic whose names were submitted to the Organising Committee.
Talking about the representatives of the Shura and Representatives Councils, he noted that three people will be involved in each sub topic and have been identified by the authorities in each of the Councils, The Government also selected one person to participate in each sub topic.
He added that it has been taken into account that work is to be divided according to specialisations of the participants as stated in their resumes and their association with the nature of the sub topic and according to the registration priority, as registration will be opened on the day following the official opening of the National Dialogue.