DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - An election monitor in Bahrain said on Sunday there was “circumstantial evidence” that pro-government Sunni Muslims used fraud to win a majority of seats in the US ally’s parliament. The island kingdom’s incoming legislature is dominated by religious hardliners who are split between Islam’s Sunni and Shia sects.Abdulla Al Derazi of the Bahrain Human Rights society said it appeared that at least three liberal opposition candidates in this kingdom were defeated by fraudulent means in Saturday’s runoff election. The opposition, led by the country’s majority Shias, won just two of 11 runoff races, leaving them three seats short of a majority in parliament’s elected lower house.
Calls made to a pair of government spokesmen went unanswered on Sunday, but Minister of Information Mohammed Abdel Ghaffar has downplayed previous reports of irregularities, saying the vote was largely fair and problems were minor.
Al Derazi, whose organization was tasked by the government to monitor the balloting in this Gulf island nation, said there were widespread reports of soldiers being ordered to vote for pro-government candidates, as well as some 8,000 “floating