High turnout expected in Bahrain polls

Manama: A large number of Bahrainis are expected to turn out for the November 25 vote, a newspaper survey has found.

"The survey conducted in several areas of the country has concluded that the participation level would be fairly high," Al Wasat newspaper has said.

In the 2002 parliamentary elections, the first to be held in Bahrain in about three decades, the participation rate was 53 per cent. The rate of participation in the municipal polls was 51.3 per cent of eligible voters.

The newspaper poll did not divulge the expected turnout rate, but said that 1.9 per cent of the people who would boycott the elections would be motivated by political reasons.

"They would be responding to calls by certain opposition movements not to cast their ballots," the newspaper said.

Haq Movement, a political formation that splintered last year from Al Wefaq Society over the newly-promulgated law of political associations, has called for the boycott of the elections, saying that they would not be fair and would deepen social, economic and political divisions in the country.

But calls from Bahrain's highest Shiite authorities, led by Shaikh Eisa Qasim, to participate massively in the elections have dampened Haq's drive. The boycott call was given another blow when pro-election leaders produced a statement from Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani urging Shiites not to ignore the polls.

Reasons cited

Sunni hardliners, mainly in Muharraq, Bahrain's second largest city, have also called for a poll boycott, arguing that taking part in elections was un-Islamic and an imitation of western standards.

According to the survey, other reasons not to vote include a lack of trust in the candidates.