Manama: Bahrain will witness a quiet day today, hours before thousands of voters cast their ballots in the country's second parliamentary and municipal elections in three decades.
"All campaigns have to cease by 8am this morning [Friday] in compliance with the regulations governing the elections," officials reminded the 206 candidates running for the parliamentary elections and the 171 candidates in the municipal polls.
Most of the candidates yesterday said they were confident of winning, citing strong support from partisans and supporters.
"It has been a very tough battle, but I am sure that my constituents will vote for me because they do know me as a candidate," Mohammad Al Shaikh told Gulf News.
"There have been ugly attempts to discredit me and to swing votes ... but I am sure these dirty tactics will fail," he said, looking forward to a second mandate.
For Abdul Hadi Marhoon, a second term is within sight. "I have had a good campaign and people know how much I worked during the first mandate."
But the outgoing first deputy speaker of the Council of Representatives faces an uphill struggle against strong opponents in a tightly-contested constituency.
"I know it is tough, but I have no doubts about the outcome [tomorrow]," he said.
According to election officials, 794 people have already cast their ballots in 22 polling stations abroad.
"This makes it a participation rate of 66 per cent in the overseas voting," spokesperson Ahdeya Ahmad said amid media expectations that more people would take part in the elections than in 2002 when four societies boycotted the polls.
