Bahrain heads to polls without opposition candidates

Bahrainis headed to the polls but a ban on opposition candidates means the elections will bring no meaningful change despite a record number of people vying for seats, rights groups said.

More than 330 candidates, including a record 73 women, are competing to join the 40-seat council of representatives -- the lower house of parliament that advises King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, who has ruled since his father died in March 1999.

This is up from the 293 people -- including 41 women -- who ran for parliament in the last election in 2018.

But the country, ruled by a Sunni dynasty, has barred its two main opposition groups from fielding candidates -- the Shiite Al-Wefaq and secular Waad parties which were dissolved in 2016 and 2017.

"This election will not introduce any change," said Ali Abdulemam, a UK-based Bahraini human rights activist.

"Without the opposition we will not have a healthy country," he said.

Nearly 350,000 people were eligible to vote in the polls.

Yet restrictions have ignited calls for a boycott of the elections, which come more than a decade after a 2011 crackdown on Shiite-led protesters demanding political reforms.

In 2018, Bahrain passed so-called political and civil isolation laws, barring former opposition party members from running for parliament and sitting on the boards of civil organisations.