DUBAI

Bahrainis were voting on Saturday in the final round of the Gulf kingdom’s first legislative elections since the minority authorities crushed pro-democracy protests led by the majority in 2011.

Controversy clouded last weekend’s first round and its focus on turnout, a key marker of the validity of the election, after the opposition boycotted it, calling it a “farce”.

The official BNA news agency said people flocked to polling stations in large numbers on Saturday morning to choose from among 68 candidates to fill the 34 out of 40 seats not decided last week.  

The electoral commission put turnout at 52.6 per cent in Sunday’s first round, but the opposition said only 30 per cent of eligible voters had cast their ballots.