Bahraini voters began casting ballots on Saturday for the Gulf state's parliamentary and municipal elections.

Voters, men and women alike, queued in separate lines to cast their ballots in polling stations which opened at 8:00 a.m. (0500 GMT).

The Shiite-led opposition participated in the elections after they boycotted polls in 2002.

The Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, representing the majority Shiites, is competing for 17 seats of the 40 parliamentary seats and 23 of the 40 municipal seats.

Ahead of the elections, tension was running high between the Sunni-dominated authorities and the Shiite-led opposition, who warned the government that any attempt to rig the elections would be opposed.

Shiites account for some 60 percent of the 650,000 population in Bahrain.

Source: Xinhua