Hollow victory for Bahrain's Shiite opposition party

Bahrain's main Shiite opposition group yesterday won all the seats it contested in a parliamentary vote seen to have little impact on the Sunni-run country where politics are tightly controlled by the rulers.

Sunni Islamists looked set to be the poll's biggest losers. They retained only three of their 15 seats and will be forced to fight for another seven in a second round of voting.

Wefaq, the Gulf Arab kingdom's Shiite opposition group, won all the 18 seats it contested, out of a total of 40, election officials said. It held 17 seats in the outgoing assembly.

The gain had been expected as the districts the group contested have mainly Shiite populations. The opposition claims the government apportions districts in such a way as to prevent Shiite opposition members from gaining a majority in the assembly.

Bahrain, home to the US Fifth Fleet, has a Shiite Muslim majority population but is governed by the Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty. Allies Saudi Arabia and the US see as a bulwark against the regional influence of Shiite power Iran.