DUBAI,
United Arab Emirates — Bahrain has elected a record eight women and many
first-time lawmakers to its 40-seat parliament, according to results announced
Sunday of this week’s polls.
اضافة اعلان
The official Bahrain News Agency published
the list of 34 candidates who won seats in the second round of parliamentary
elections on Saturday, adding to six confirmed after a first round on November
12.
Two major opposition groups, the Shiite
Al-Wefaq and the secular Waad, were prevented from presenting candidates. These
parties were dissolved in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
More than 330 candidates, including a record
73 women, ran for a seat on the council of representatives — the lower house of
parliament that advises King Hamad, who has ruled since his father died in
March 1999.
Six women have served in the outgoing
chamber.
Bahrain has about 350,000 registered voters
out of a population of 1.4 million.
Turnout in the first round was 73 percent,
authorities said, but no figures have been released for the second round.
This was the country’s third election since
demonstrations in 2011 driven by demands for a constitutional monarchy and
other political reforms.
The second round of voting coincided with the
Manama Dialogue conference, which has brought top diplomats from across the
world to the capital from Friday until Sunday.
Bahrain, the host of the US Fifth Fleet,
often accuses its neighbor Iran of training armed groups in order to cause
unrest, a charge Tehran denies.
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