MANAMA, Nov 26: Bahrain's Shia opposition has won at least 40 per cent of seats in parliament in polls that attracted a high turnout, after a boycott of the last elections in 2002, an official told AFP on Sunday.
Their success in Saturday's polls comes against the background of the Shia rise to dominance in Iraq and Iran's defiance of Western demands over its nuclear ambitions.
Bahrain's underprivileged Shias make up two-thirds of the country's 700,000 population but struggle to find jobs in the Sunni-dominated economy and government.
At least 16 of the 17 candidates fielded by Islamic National Accord Association (INAA) -- the main alliance of Shias -- won seats in the 40-member parliament, the official said, requesting anonymity. Senior election official Walid Buallai put the turnout at 72 per cent. The results gives INAA control over 40 per cent of the elected chamber. The 17th INAA candidate is expected to go into a second round scheduled for December 2. Meanwhile, two other Shia candidates who are INAA members but ran outside the group's list will face each other in a runoff.
Sheikh Ali Salman, INAA's charismatic leader who led its electoral ticket and won a seat, had told AFP that all INAA candidates were expected to win by the second round.
“If this doesn't happen, it will be because of fraud,” he said.
Four candidates of INAA's leftist ally, the National Democratic Action Association (NDAA), also went into the second round.
NDAA's woman candidate Munira Fakhrou, who stood against a leading Sunni Islamist MP, as well as Abdulrahman al-Nuaimi, Ibrahim Sherif and Sami Siyyadi all advanced to the second round.
Meanwhile, the two main Sunni Islamist groups, which together had 13 seats in the outgoing chamber, clinched only five seats in the first round, with seven others reaching the next round.
A high-ranking official hailed the results as proof of the transparency of the elections. The opposition had accused the government of plotting to rig the vote to maintain control through pro-government MPs.
“This result confirms with no doubt the soundness and transparency of the Bahraini elections ... All we care about is that all (Bahrainis) take part in democratic life,” he said.A second-round of voting next week will decide whether Bahrain's 40-member parliament will be dominated by the governing Sunni minority or an opposition alliance of Shias and liberals.
The Shia-liberal alliance would press the government for broad reforms to Bahrain's limited democracy, where the ruling al-Khalifa family controls most levers of power.
A rowdy, sometimes dirty campaign featured nightly rallies in hundreds of campaign tents scattered across this island's dusty neighborhoods.
The vote was watched closely by neighbouring Arab countries planning similar steps toward democracy, or dealing with their own Shia populations clamouring for power—AFP/AP
