Minority Shiites Make Gains in Local Elections

Shiite Muslim candidates triumphed in parts of eastern Saudi Arabia in the second round of the predominantly Sunni kingdom’s elections for local councils.

Shiites swept the board in the town of Qatif and won five of six seats in the mixed Sunni-Shiite area of Hasa. But in the urban centers of Dammam, Dhahran and Khobar, where significant Shiite communities live, Sunni candidates won with apparent backing from hard-line clerics.

Many Shiites complain of second-class treatment in Saudi Arabia, whose rulers follow the austere Sunni sect of Wahhabism, which has traditionally been hostile to Shiites.