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Code of Corporate Governance of Bahrain requires that the maximum tenure of board membership should not exceed three years; however the Code does not put any restriction on re-election for further terms (Section 4.3). Moreover, the Company Law specifies the tenure of board membership should be three years (Article 172).

There is no doubt that fixing the number of years for a director or fixing the number of times of election constitutes a major problem for many companies, especially those working in Middle East region. This is because there are inadequate numbers of appropriately qualified board members. Secondly, the shareholders in this region are wary of trusting someone who does not own shares in the company with the responsibility of corporate management as they perceive there may be risks of divided loyalty or conflict of interest. Thus, we may continue to see board members remaining in their offices for many years. However, it is important to understand the underlying philosophy for fixing tenure of membership – to make sure that the board members are adding value to the company instead of just occupying office for an indefinite period. Having a checkpoint after three years ensure that a thorough review is undertaken before a board member is re-elected for another period.