JEDDAH, 4 August 2004 — Preparations for the Kingdom’s first municipal elections, due in October, are in full swing and the rules and regulations for the historic vote will be issued within a fortnight.
Reporting this, Al-Yaum Arabic daily quoted high-level sources as saying that voters should be at least 21 years old and should have spent at least 12 months in the region where they vote.
The paper said the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs has completed all preparations for the elections to pick half the members of 178 municipal councils in the Kingdom’s 13 regions.
The rules and regulations will set out conditions and qualifications of candidates as well as voters, the paper said, adding that identification of polling stations and registration of voters would be carried out in the next stage.
The committees and working groups set up by the ministry for the elections have been in contact with international consultants and experts in order to make the necessary arrangements for the elections.
“The committees have familiarized themselves with world experiments in conducting municipal elections, the mechanisms applied and technologies used as a prelude to putting in place a comprehensive electoral system compatible with the principles espoused by Saudi Arabia,” said Prince Miteb, the minister of municipal and rural affairs.
The working groups comprise opinion makers, religious scholars and people experienced in the legal, social, administrative and technical fields. They took part in studies drafted by the ministry “in cooperation with international experts who laid down the procedural and practical bases for the electoral exercise,” Prince Miteb said.
According to a report carried by Al-Watan daily, only male Saudis will be eligible to vote. In addition to women, military personnel and employees of the municipalities will be excluded from the vote, it added.
Al-Watan said three committees would supervise the elections to the councils which it said must have no fewer than four and no more than 14 members.
International experts have welcomed the elections as a major step toward political reforms, saying the elections will enhance popular participation in the decision-making process.
Saudi leaders promised last October to organize the partial municipal elections within a year. Reports at the time said elections would also be held within three years to fill one-third of the 120 seats of the Shoura Council, and that half the members of regional councils would be elected within two years. Shoura Council members have expressed the hope that the municipal poll will lead to general elections.
“The experience of the Shoura and the municipal elections will be positive factors in establishing the idea of elections so that they will become general and not just municipal,” Shoura member Saleh Al-Omeir was quoted as saying.
