General Secretary Fouad Seyadi Founded 2002 | Founder Abdulrahman al-Nuaimi Headquarters Umm Al Hassam, Bahrain | |
Preceded by Popular Front for the Liberation of Bahrain Student wing The Change Student Bloc | ||
The National Democratic Action Society - Wa'ad (Arabic: جمعية العمل الوطني الديمقراطي - وعد) is Bahrain's largest leftist political party.
History and profile
It emerged from the Popular Front, a "radical" clandestine opposition movement of socialist and Arab nationalist orientation. Under the reform process initiated by Bahrain's King Hamad, the leaders of the Popular Front returned from exile to participate in the political process through the National Democratic Action.
The party's origins lie in the split within the Left in the Arab world in the 1960s, between a pro-Moscow camp and a pro-China camp, with the NDA's leaders backing Beijing. The party is the first licensed political group in any of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.
Historically, the Left in Bahrain had been very strong, partly as a result of the creation of a local working class through the Kingdom's industrialisation with the discovery of oil in the 1930s; however the waning of Arab nationalism, the collapse of communism as an ideology and the rise of the Islamist Right have marginalised the NDA and robbed it of much of its traditional support. The party was established by returning exiles in 2002.
The current leader of the party is Fouad Seyadi, who was elected after the general assembly of the party in November 2016. One of the current known figures of the party is Ibrahim Sharif Al-Sayed, who took over in 2005 until 2012 from Abdul-Rahman Al Nuaimi. In 2005 the party renamed itself Wa'ad (Arabic: وعد), which translates to "Promise". Other prominent members include: Abdul-Nabi Alekri, Ebrahim KamalAldeen, Sami Seyadi, Ali Salih and Munira Fakhro
The party suffered a very disappointing result in 2002's municipal elections when none of its candidates were elected in any constituency. Despite this, the NDA's leaders are widely respected and retain a great deal of influence in Bahraini society. The party boycotted 2002's parliamentary elections, but took part in the Bahraini parliamentary election of 2006; among its candidates was its vice president and former Harvard academic, Munira Fakhro, who contested an Isa Town constituency against Salah Ali of Al-Menbar Islamic Society.