Bahrain holds a parliamentary election Saturday amid boycott calls from dissolved opposition groups which have been banned from taking part.
Bahrain holds a parliamentary election Saturday amid boycott calls from dissolved opposition groups which have been banned from taking part.
The country’s two main opposition groups, the Shiite Al-Wefaq and secular Waad, were barred from fielding candidates.
The polls opened at 8am local time (0500 GMT) and are set to close at 8pm.
King Hamad in September urged voters to take part in the vote, in which officials say 293 people — including 41 women — are running for parliament.
A municipal poll coincides with the parliamentary vote.
The tiny Gulf kingdom has been hit by ongoing unrest since 2011, when security forces crushed Shiite-led protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister.
Opposition parties shunned the last elections in 2014, the first since the 2011 crackdown, denouncing the vote as a “farce”.
More than 350,000 Bahrainis are eligible to vote in Saturday’s poll, according to justice minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ali al-Khalifa, adding that there were 54 polling stations across the country.
On Saturday, the interior ministry warned voters to “dismiss rumours that affect the electoral process”.
