Bahrain holds vote amid boycott calls
Bahrain holds a parliamentary election yesterday amid boycott calls from dissolved opposition groups which have been banned from taking part.
The country's two main opposition groups, the Shia Al-Wefaq and secular Waad, were barred from fielding candidates.
The polls opened at 8am local time (0500 GMT) and are set to close at 8pm.
King Hamad in September urged voters to take part in the vote, in which officials say 293 people -- including 41 women -- are running for parliament.
A municipal poll coincides with the parliamentary vote.
The tiny Gulf kingdom has been hit by ongoing unrest since 2011, when security forces crushed Shia-led protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister.
Bahrain has repeatedly accused Shia-dominated Iran of stoking unrest.
Opposition parties shunned the last elections in 2014, the first since the 2011 crackdown, denouncing the vote as a "farce".
Al-Wefaq called for a boycott of this year's parliamentary election after a law issued in June barred "leaders and members of political associations dissolved for violating the kingdom's constitution or its laws" from fielding candidates.
Experts have questioned the value of a parliamentary election in which the opposition is not allowed to participate.
Neil Partrick, a specialist in Gulf Arab politics, said Bahrain's elections "have lost all practical and political meaning" since the 2010 boycott by Al-Wefaq -- the main movement representing the country's Shia population.
He said such polls had "no political or practical substance" regardless of boycott calls.
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