Bahrain, October 24: The polling stations closed at 8:00 p.m. local time (1700 GMT) on Saturday after 12 hours of voting with electoral officials estimating a turnout of “at least 67 percent,” AFP reported.
But the opposition said Shia voters had been turned away from polling booths, charges Manama has rejected.
Nabeel Rajab, who is the director of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said the government intended to make sure the country’s Shia majority would not gain power.
Hundreds have been arrested in recent months, and at least 23 Shia opposition leaders have been charged with plotting against Bahrain’s Sunni-dominated government.
Rajab alleged that a certain number of Saudis who have been given citizenship together with 30 percent of the eligible voters who are either in the army or the police force are all told who to vote for.
During the elections — the third ballot since the restoration of parliament after a 27-year suspension — a total of 127 candidates, eight of them women, were vying for seats in the 40-member parliament.
However, the legislative body has limited powers because bills endorsed by the lower house need to go through an upper house whose members are appointed by the king.
Foreign observers were barred from overseeing the process of the elections.
The final outcome is to be announced on Sunday.
——–Agencies