JEDDAH, 25 June — A large number of Indian parents are planning to boycott the election scheduled for June 28 to elect a new managing committee for the International Indian School, Jeddah (IISJ).

Parents are upset that out of 24 candidates who had filed papers for the election, only eight were declared eligible to contest. More so, the agitating parents and the rejected candidates claim that "those who have been selected to contest were the ones who always toe the lines of those who matter".

They also pointed out that there are a lot of anomalies in the nomination papers of these eight people and, hence, their papers should also be rejected.

With every passing day the activities of these active community members are gaining momentum and they are conducting meetings in every part of the city to mobilize public opinion against what they call "gross and unjust interference of the Indian Embassy in the school election process."

They are particularly upset over the way papers have been rejected without giving reasons for the rejection.

One such meeting was organized on Monday in Azizia under the presidentship of Satish K. Gupta, a former member of the school managing committee, people raised their voice against the arbitrary way of rejecting the nomination papers.

One of the speakers, K.C. Babu was of the opinion that the parents had every right to know the reasons for which the papers of their favorite candidates were thrown into the dustbin.

A good number of people who attended the meeting blasted the whole election process and appealed to Indian Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad to look into it.

One of the prominent members of the community Jamalullah Quadri in his address expressed his deep anguish and pain over the way people have been kept away from the election. But he was hopeful that the ambassador will look into the matter sympathetically and will do something to accommodate more people in the list. The speakers were of the view that the embassy was playing an active role in the whole issue.

The embassy, however, maintains that an election commission, consisting of members from the Ministry of Education, the embassy, school authorities and parents, was conducting the election. But parents are skeptical about the commission and are not willing to buy this theory. One of the parents, Setu Mahadevan, said that ‘if there was such a body in place why the names of its members were not being made public." Nobody knows who they are, Mahadevan added.

Other speakers said the whole election process was a farce. They also vented their anger on the necessity of obtaining a character certificate from the embassy to file the papers. Syed Taiyyab Omar asked "what was the need for such a certificate." He said that a letter from the sponsor was more than enough to certify that a man bears a good moral character. Moreover, "the passport itself is a character certificate," Omar opined. Earlier, on Saturday, a similar meeting was held in Sharfiyah. There also participants decided to boycott the election. It is being said that a complaint has also been filed in the local "Deewan-e-Mazalim", which hears complaint against officials.

Speaking about the complaint a parent Amir Ali said: "We have moved the Dewan-e-Mazalim against the director of foreign education in the Ministry of Education because the whole election process is said to be conducted under his office." He further said: "We have appealed to the Deewan to stay the election."