2014 Bahrain Parliament Election Saturday Nov 22,2014

Bahraini voters are taking part in the country's first parliamentary elections since Arab Spring protests broke out in 2011

About 350,000 people are eligible to vote, choosing 40 legislators from among 266 mostly Sunni candidates

The government has called on all of the country's political factions to participate in Saturday's poll.

But Shia opposition groups plan to stage a boycott, saying the vote is an attempt to establish "absolute rule"

Despite being ruled by a Sunni monarchy, the majority of the Bahraini population are Shias.

Bahraini protestors hold signs calling for a boycott of the parliamentary elections, during a rally in the Shiite village of Diraz, west of Manama on November 21, 2014


Protesters holding a signs march during a rally organised by Bahrain's main opposition party Al Wefaq in Budaiya, west of Manama September 19, 2014.



Four opposition groups including the largest, Al Wefaq, will boycott a parliamentary election scheduled for November in Bahrain to protest what they described as a vote where the results would be "fully controlled by the ruling authority".
Wefaq, which has strong links to Bahrain's Shi'ite majority, confirmed on Saturday the opposition would not take part in the poll because the elected parliament will not have enough power and because voting districts favor the Sunni minority.