Bahrain set for second round of polls
Manama, October 1, 2011
Bahrain will go to polls today in the second round of parliamentary by-election to fill 18 seats vacated by MPs belonging to opposition group Al Wefaq in February.
Voting will be held for nine seats where no candidate received 50 per cent of the votes cast in last Saturday's election.
The two candidates with most votes from each of these constituencies will go head to head.
In the by-election, four of the seats were won by candidates who ran unopposed and five were elected in last Saturday's polls.
'It has been important to hold this by-election, so that there will be a full parliament to pass legislation for reforms agreed in the recent National Dialogue called by His Majesty King Hamad and attended by more than 300 delegates from all sections of Bahraini society,' said an Information Affairs Authority spokesman.
A key recommendation of the National Dialogue is that the powers of parliament should be increased.-TradeArabia News Service