Election boycott leads to runoff elections in Bahrain

Bahrain: Second Round of Elections Set for Oct. 1
POMED – 25 Septemebr, 2011

Bahrain will hold a second round of elections on October 1 to fill the 9 seats in which no candidate received fifty percent of the vote in Saturday’s by-elections. Of the other seats, “four deputies were elected in the absence of any competitors, and five seats were allocated.” While a government statement reported voter turnout of 17.4%, Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa claimed the turnout was 51.4%.

Amid the by-elections, “many Shia areas” continue to witness violent clashes “nightly,” and the crackdown persists. On Monday, the National Safety Court sentenced Mahdi Abu Deeb, head of the Bahrain Teachers’ Society, to ten years in prison, and his Jalila al-Salman received three years. Their charges include “instigating the committing of criminal acts such as inviting for a teachers sit-in, the stopping of the educational process in the Kingdom, the staging of processions and demonstrations at various locations in the Kingdom.” Others also received jail time for harboring a suspect.
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