In November 2014, Bahrainis returned to the polls for the country’s first full legislative election since the uprising started around four years ago. With the main Shi’a opposition party Al Wefaq’s boycott of the elections and the subsequent arrest of its leader Ali Salman, the elections are playing a much more important role in determining the future of Bahrain.

In preparation for Dr Kristin Smith Diwan’s lecture on Tuesday 20 January around that same topic, the MEC will be hosting an online symposium by leading academics and experts on Bahrain to look at the outcomes of the most recent Bahraini elections and what their impact will be – if any – on the future of Bahrain.

Contributions:

• Bahrain redux, by Neil Partrick
• The ‘red line’ of Sheikh Ali Salman’s arrest: Bahrain moves into new territory, by Christopher Davidson
• The deepening divide in post-election Bahrain, by Marc Owen Jones
• Radical spatial-demographic transformations: the need for an intersectional view, by Mohammed AlDaaysi
• Britain’s base and Bahraini politics, by Jane Kinninmont
• The path to reform in Bahrain, by Ali Alaswad