Bahrain: Second Round of Elections Set for Oct. 1
\nPOMED – 25 Septemebr, 2011<\/p>\n
Bahrain will hold a second round of elections on October 1 to fill the 9 seats in which no candidate received fifty percent of the vote in Saturday\u2019s by-elections. Of the other seats, \u201cfour deputies were elected in the absence of any competitors, and five seats were allocated.\u201d While a government statement reported voter turnout of 17.4%, Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa claimed the turnout was 51.4%.<\/p>\n
Amid the by-elections, \u201cmany Shia areas\u201d continue to witness violent clashes \u201cnightly,\u201d and the crackdown persists. On Monday, the National Safety Court sentenced Mahdi Abu Deeb, head of the Bahrain Teachers\u2019 Society, to ten years in prison, and his Jalila al-Salman received three years. Their charges include \u201cinstigating the committing of criminal acts such as inviting for a teachers sit-in, the stopping of the educational process in the Kingdom, the staging of processions and demonstrations at various locations in the Kingdom.\u201d Others also received jail time for harboring a suspect.
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