Bahrain votes for new parliament but opposition is absent

Polls opened in Bahrain on Saturday to elect a new parliament, but absent from the ballot is the country's Shiite-dominated opposition, whose most prominent figures are serving lengthy prison sentences.

Up for grabs are 40 seats in Bahrain's lower house of parliament and 30 municipal council seats. Runoffs will be held next month.

It's the second election in Bahrain since mass protests led by the country's Shiite majority erupted in early 2011.

The government, which is ruled by a Sunni monarchy, crushed the Arab Spring-inspired protests with help from Saudi and Emirati forces, but disenfranchised Shiite youth continue to hold scattered street protests in the tiny Persian Gulf nation.

Rights groups say Saturday's vote is taking place in a repressive environment that is not conducive to free elections.

Just before Bahrain held its last parliamentary elections in 2014, the country's largest opposition bloc, Al-Wefaq, was suspended.

Fourteen Shiite candidates won seats in those elections, which were boycotted by much of the Shiite-dominated opposition.

Since then, Al-Wefaq has been ordered dissolved and its leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, has been sentenced to life in prison.

Courts also dissolved the secular Waad group and closed the last independent newspaper in the country, Al-Wasat.

Just this month, prosecutors detained and charged a former lawmaker for expressing his intention on Twitter to boycott the elections.

Prosecutors say the tweets sought to "hamper the democratic process."