HIGHLIGHTSMinister of Information Sad Because Two Women Candidates Expected to Get Elected Lost |*| One of the Two Women, However, Doesn't Feel Like a Loser |*| Opposition's Call to Boycott Election Goes Largely Unheeded |*|
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STORY: Secular candidates won a slight majority over Islamists in voting for 21 seats in Bahrain's parliament, while two women who hoped to make history by getting elected both lost, according to preliminary results announced Thursday.

Preliminary results showed that 12 secularists and nine Islamic candidates won seats, making the 40-seat legislature representative of the tiny kingdom's political spectrum.

The first round of parliamentary elections, the first in Bahrain in nearly 30 years, were held last week.

Commenting on the failure of the two women to win seats, Information Minister Nabil al-Hamer said: "I am personally very sad at the outcome. But ... we accept the results."

Al-Hamer announced the initial results but the figures on most races were not released. Final results were not expected until Friday at the earliest.

Results from last week's first round of voting showed that 10 Islamic candidates and nine secularists won. Also in the first round, six women were knocked out of the race, leaving Latifa al-Gaoud, a 46-year-old British university graduate, and Fawzia al-Ruwaie, a 41-year-old military nurse, hopeful of winning spots.

"I don't feel like a loser, this was a great learning experience and I hope that Bahraini women don't have to wait long to get into politics," al-Ruwaie said after learning of her loss Thursday night.

Kuwait is the only other Arab nation with a parliament in the gulf region - which is dominated by traditional rulers. But in Kuwait, women are barred from both running and voting.

In Riffa, south of the capital, Manama, al-Gaoud faced tough competition from Sunni Muslim cleric Jassim Ahmed al-Saeed. The cleric's supporters had campaigned aggressively, driving around in cars decorated with al-Saeed's posters.

Al-Gaoud lost by a 280-vote margin, garnering 1,393 votes to al-Saeed's 1,673, state television reported early Friday.

Al-Ruwaie lost by 388 votes, securing 1,017 compared with 1,405 for secularist Yousuf Zainal.

Although no women have been elected to the 40-seat chamber, they seem to have fared better than they did in May's municipal elections when the voters - a slight majority of whom are women - rejected all 31 women candidates outright.

Last week's turnout of about 53 percent of registered voters also was an increase from the 51 percent turnout in municipal elections.

A Shiite Muslim group spearheaded a campaign to boycott the elections because the parliament's second chamber - a council appointed by the king - will have as much power as the elected assembly.

But group leader Sheik Ali Salman said last week the polls were "fair overall." Despite Salman's insisting Thursday that the boycott was still on, it appeared to be largely unheeded as many of those who didn't vote in the first round voted Thursday.

"My husband told me that it's important to vote, so I am here," a Shiite housewife, Aneesa Mubarak, said outside a polling center in predominantly Shiite Hamad Town.

Islamists belonging to Sunni Muslim groups were in a slight majority of the 19 legislators elected last week. Sunnis are the minority among Bahrain's 400,000 citizens and include the royal family among their members.

The fact that the boycott campaign was dominated by Shiite Muslims, the majority sect, has impeded their representation in the new parliament, analysts say.

Bahrain went through a wave of political turbulence in the early 1990s when Shiites took to the streets to press for democracy and an end to their perceived discrimination in state jobs and services. More than 40 people were killed.

This year's parliamentary and municipal elections are part of the democratization process initiated by the king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, after he ascended to the throne in 1999 following his father's death.

Last year, Bahrainis overwhelmingly endorsed a national charter spelling out the reform program. In February, Sheik Hamad declared a constitutional monarchy and called legislative elections - the first since 1973.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Bahraini blind man, right, assisted by his grandson, casts his vote in round two of the parliamentary election in Muharraq, Bahrain, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2002. (AP Photo/Ali Fraid