Registration update

I updated the list of candidates based on the website of the ministry of the Interior. This is the official list, and I’m very glad to see that the ministry is posting to the website again (which it has not always done regularly).

Tenth and last day of registration

Thirty more candidates, for a total of 135 candidates for only 5 seats. There are a few candidates with a history of winning: Thikra Al-Rashidi in the 5th, Ahmad Lari in the 2nd. There are also some, especially in the 3rd, who won in December 2012 but lost in July 2013.

By-election candidates

So far there are 88 candidates for the elections to fill the seats vacated by the five members of the National Assembly who recently resigned (see under the Elections column to the right). The vacancies are in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th districts.

Two new deputies

On 23 December the Constitutional Court approved the revised vote totals first made public in October. As a result, two deputies lost their seats: Masouma Mubarak and Usama al- Tahous.

“New” government

A new slate of ministers announced on the 6th. It is not, according to the constitutional procedures, a new government, but instead an extension of the one announced in August 2013. There were, however, changes to many portfolios. The timing of the new government was driven by the Constitutional Court’s upholding of the July 2013 elections in late December (that is to say, the court declined to declare the elections and National Assembly invalid, as it had done following the previous two elections).