;Business-political confluence The domination of politics by religious parties has seen concerns raised by the business community that their voice will be marginalised. The agenda of both Al Wefaq and the Sunni Islamists has been portrayed by opponents as "statist", while there are concerns that the government may be tempted to buy off opponents in parliament through traditional clientelism by providing their supporters with jobs in the civil service, thus further bloating the public sector. Ironically, business representatives, being both liberal and anti-sectarian, tend to have most in common with parties on the Left of Bahrain's political spectrum, such as the
National Democratic Action. Perhaps symbolically, the NDA's leader,
Ibrahim Sharif, is a former banker. However, with Left-wing and liberal parties faring badly in the polls, business groups have been urged not to back specific parties and risk alienating opponents, but to lobby MPs after the election to ensure they understand businesses' concerns. ;Al Sistani's intervention The Leading Shia authority,
Grand Ayatollah Al Sistani advised Bahraini Shi'a to participate in the poll, in a move similar to the edict received in 2002 by
Salafist leader,
Adel Al Mouawda, from Sunni religious authorities in Saudi Arabia that allowed him and other Sunnis to vote and run in the elections. Shia religious scholar Sheikh
Isa Qassim has been urging voters to go to turn out in the polls. "Boycotting the elections would be a grave mistake," said the fatwa that the Shiite establishment. According to a poll in
Al Wasat newspaper, 1.9% of voters will heed calls for a boycott being made by a splinter group of Salafists and the
Haq Movement. Turnout was thus expected to be "fairly high" according to a survey by
Al Wasat, which predicts that it should be significantly up on 2002's 53% participation rate. ;Ex-Al Qaeda suspects contesting poll Several individuals contesting the election had faced accused of links with international terrorism. In a bitter battle in
Riffa, extremist Salafist,
Jassim Al Saeedi, was being challenged from the Right by Muhejeudeen Mohmood Mohyeden, who claimed that the government branded him an
Al Qaeda operative. Mr Mohyeden says that the allegations arose from his role as a volunteer fighting against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, but that instead of undermining his campaign the claims helped to raise his profile in the conservative constituency. Municipal candidate, Muhieddin Khan, (who is backed by the
National Justice Movement) spent most of the election campaign before a Bahraini court charged with planning terror attacks. Mr Khan, along with three other alleged members of the cell, was only found not guilty on 20 November 2006, less than five days before the poll. After the verdict Mr Khan announced that he is suing the Bahraini government for BD700,000 for harassment. On the Shia Right, Al Amal is seen as the direct descendant of the group that plotted a coup d'état in Bahrain in 1981; the party's leaders only returned to public life in Bahrain after they returned from exile or were released from prison in 2001. ; Other controversies The political campaign began in controversial circumstances in September 2006, with the
Bandargate scandal, in which it was alleged that a secret organization of government officials were planning to rig the elections to marginalize the
Shia community. Under the plan, an alleged secret organization set up a
slush fund to finance candidates sympathetic to the government, with sums of hundreds of dinars given to several candidates in order to lessen the number of seats won by
Al Wefaq. The plot led to crisis talks between
King Hamad and the leaders of Bahrain's political parties, as well as senior clerics, such as Sheikh
Isa Qassim. After being given assurances from the King, opposition groups announced that they would continue to participate in the poll. Subsequently, poll monitors, the Bahrain Transparency Society, registered 79 violations ranging from oversized banners and posters, out-of-place billboards, attacks on the character of contenders, dissemination of lies and rumours, anti-women calls and the use of mosques to promote candidates. Opponents of prominent Leftist candidate, Dr Munira Fakhro, have sought to use text messaging to try to portray her as anti-religious, receiving backing from by both the government and Al Wefaq, and drawn attention to her personal wealth. Dr Fakhro dismissed the attacks: "To say that only a poor person can feel with the poor is ludicrous and illogical." The only member of the royal family to contest the elections, Sheikh Salman bin Saqer Al-Khalifa, has alleged that his opponent in
Riffa,
Khalifa Al Dhahrani, has the backing of a Kuwaiti tribe which should not be allowed to vote under the electoral rules but will be casting their votes for Al Dhahrani. The
Haq Movement boycotted the 2006 elections, arguing that it is unconstitutional under the 1976 constitution, that the electoral districts have been heavily
gerrymandered to favor the desires of the
Al Khalifa royal family, and that mass illegal political naturalization has taken place. On 16 November 2006, two activists for the
Haq Movement, Dr. Mohammed Saeed and Hussain Abdelrazaq Alhabashi, were arrested by Bahraini police for distributing material urging Bahraini to boycott the November 25 elections. ==Expectations and reactions==