Bahrain's Justice minister leads team hours before polling stations open

Manama, Dec. 1 (BNA): On the second defining day of the 2018 parliamentary and municipal elections, Justice Minister and head of the Supreme Committee for the Elections Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa led the team of judges to their polling and counting stations at 6 am, two hours before the start of the vote. Shaikh Khalid was accompanied by Supreme Judicial Council Abdullah bin Hassam Al Buainain and Public Security Chief Tariq Al Hassan. “Great turnout in the first hour of the second round of elections in all polling stations,” Shaikh Khalid posted on his Twitter account. “Increasing the number of tracks for voters in many stations is helping to avoid long queues. All the polling stations were provided with the same number of ballots as in the first round in order to avoid delays.” Bahraini men and women today cast their ballots from 8 am to 8 pm to elect 31 lawmakers and 23 municipal councilors who will join the nine MPs and seven municipal representatives who were elected in the first round on November 24.