DOHA
Only six candidates managed to emerge winners in the first round of Bahrain's parliamentary elections, while the remaining 34 seats of parliament will be up for grabs during a runoff on Saturday.
Bahrain held parliamentary and municipal elections on Saturday, the first since 2010, giving the chance for 349,713 eligible voters to cast ballots.
According to official figures, around 51.5 percent of eligible voters participated in the parliamentary elections, while 53.7 percent participated in the municipal elections, according to the country's Justice Minister Khaled Al-Khalifa.
Out of the six seats secured in the first round of the elections, one was won by a Salafist candidate. Three more Salafist candidates will contest seats in the election runoff on Saturday along with four Muslim Brotherhood candidates.
Bahrain's Shiite opposition groups had largely boycotted the parliamentary and municipal elections.
A total of 419 candidates ran in the elections, according to local media.
Saturday's run-off vote will be held in the constituencies where no candidate managed to win more than 50 percent of votes.
Bahrain's opposition Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society has already cast doubt on the voter turnout figures announced by the Bahraini authorities, which put participation in the parliamentary elections at 51.5 percent.
"The voter turnout being propagated by the [Bahraini] regime is absurd and lacks any modicum of credibility," the Shiite group said in a statement late Saturday.
Bahrain has been rocked by political unrest since 2011, with the authorities blaming the Shiite opposition groups for the turmoil. The groups led by Al-Wefq, however, say they seek the establishment of a "constitutional monarchy" in the kingdom.
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