UPDATE WITH DETAILS
By Hussein Qabani
MANAMA (AA) – Bahraini voters cast ballot on Saturday in the Gulf country’s parliamentary and municipal election.
Polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. local time (05:00 GMT) and will close at 8:00 p.m. (17:00 GMT).
The vote is being held amid boycott calls by opposition groups in the kingdom.
Elections executive director Nawaf Hamza said “high turnout” was reported in the first hours of the polls, according to the official BNA news agency.
“The process is going smoothly without any obstacles, ” he said, adding that the voting was not disrupted by “rumors” – in reference to calls for boycotting the vote by opposition groups.
In the run-up to the polls, opposition groups have called on voters to boycott the ballot, including the Shia Al-Wefaq Society, which spearheaded mass protests against the ruling regime in 2011.
Al-Wefaq, meanwhile, said on Twitter that a number of people had been arrested in dawn raids, but without elaborating.
More than 365,000 Bahrainis are eligible to vote in the parliamentary polls and 286,000 in the municipal election, according to the country’s election commission.
Almost 300 candidates are running for seats in the country’s 40-member Council of Representatives (parliament), while 140 candidates are vying for 30 municipal council seats.
On Tuesday, Bahrainis living abroad cast their ballots in the polls.
Writing on Twitter, electoral commission chief Khalid Al-Khalifa on Saturday called on voters to take part in the polls and ignore the boycott calls.
“All the brothers and sisters on the voter lists are invited to participate and ignore any suspicious messages calling for a boycott, ” he tweeted.
