MANAMA – The results of sorting votes in the Bahraini parliament elections resulted in the victory of six candidates, including a woman, with seats from the first round, while competition will be held in a 34 -seat return round next Saturday, according to the authorities on Sunday.
Bahraini voters made their votes in polling stations across the Kingdom on Saturday, in new parliamentary elections that witnessed a record number of candidates, but in the absence of two major opposition groups, who were resolved years ago.
Bahraini Minister of Justice Nawaf bin Muhammad Al -Ma’wada announced in a press conference shortly after the end of the electoral process, which also included the municipal council on Saturday evening that the participation rate reached 73 percent, which is the “highest participation rate since 2002”.
He continued, “No violations that affect the integrity of the electoral process have been recorded.
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More than 330 candidates, including 73 women, competed to win 40 seats in the House of Representatives, which advises the Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, who has ruled the country since the death of his father in March 1999. The number of candidates in the last 2018 elections was 293 people among them 41 women.
The number of voters registered in the Gulf Kingdom is about 350,000 people among the population of about 1. 4 million.
Sunday, the results showed that six candidates win seats after they received the sufficient number of votes in their circles, which is the same plus, while the remaining seats will be competed in the return round next Saturday.
The two main opposition groups, the Shiite “Al -Wefaq” and the secular promise to present candidates such as the 2018 elections, against the background of the dissolution of the first association in 2016 and the other in 2017, prompting them to invite voters to boycott the elections.
This is the third election since the events of 2011, when Bahrain, which is located between Saudi Arabia and Iran, witnessed movements that Manama described as suspicious and supported by Tehran and extremist Shiite groups loyal to it.
“Performance of political rights in Bahrain is protected by the constitution, with the exception of cases where the conditions of nomination are not met.
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The requirements include “the absence of a criminal record or the lack of belonging to a group that has been resolved due to its involvement in violence that contradicts legitimate political activity,” according to the official who also affirmed that “the right to vote is also a constitutional right, but it is not an obligation. No one punishes the choice of lack Voting.
Bahrain, the headquarters of the American Fifth Fleet, often accuses its neighbor, Iran of training armed groups in order to cause unrest, which is an accusation that Tehran denies..
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