JEDDAH, 4 December 2004 — The chairman of the General Committee for Municipal Elections, Prince Mansour ibn Miteb, will answer questions on the upcoming municipal elections from Dec. 4 until Dec. 14 on the Saudi Election website (www.saudielection.com).
The website, the first of its kind in the Kingdom, was officially launched on Nov. 22 in Riyadh. It is the brainchild of a group of Saudi businessmen led by Turki Faisal Al-Rasheed, and has received an average of 18,887 hits per day and an impressive 566,632 hits for the month of November.
“I never expected such a reaction,” said Al-Rasheed in a phone interview from Riyadh. “The government is happy with our effort. They see it as a way of helping their efforts to educate Saudis about elections.”
The site, which is available in both Arabic and English versions, is both an educational one and one where people interested in elections can exchange views and information. There is a member’s forum section where articles and comments can be posted by registered users, a news section, a section on election regulations, and profiles and pictures of the various candidates.
The online question and answer session with Prince Mansour will only be available to registered users, stressed Al-Rasheed, pointing out that it is free to register.
Discussion forums with interested candidates will also be hosted by the website in the future, once candidates are registered.
Asked what he thought of the relatively subdued response of most Saudis to the forthcoming municipal elections, Al-Rasheed said that, “our society is extremely cautious, and elections are new to them. Even in the West, participation in elections is generally below 50 percent of the population, so I’m not alarmed by the small number of Saudis who have registered to vote so far.”
As of Nov. 27, 19,500 Saudis in the Riyadh region have registered to vote, of which 8,400 from Riyadh city and 11,100 from the region surrounding the capital.
