RIYADH, 11 February 2005 — The Kingdom’s first-ever municipal elections in Riyadh were characterized by a somewhat lukewarm response on the part of Saudi youth. Except in the Al-Naseem district, where they turned up in large numbers, not many young Saudis were present in other constituencies.

According to Mansour Al-Turki, student of King Saud University, one of the main factors for their indifference was the fact that none of the campaign issues — cleaner environment, solving traffic problems, building shelters for flash floods, eradicating corruption, etc — touched the youth.

Abdullah Al-Khulafi, a student at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, said the poor turnout of young voters was despite the fact that they constitute almost 60 percent of the Kingdom’s population.

Ammar Omar, a 20-year-old student at King Saud University, said: “What I am expecting from the candidates is to establish a youth club with sports facilities in every district.

This will be in the interest of the youth who waste time doing nothing.” Ammar, one of the few Saudi youth to vote in the elections, said many in his age group abstained from voting largely because the candidates made no effort to reach out to them. “They failed to connect with us. They

did not couch their campaign rhetoric in the idiom that would have gone down well with us.” Hassan Al-Ansari, a young Saudi network technician, told Arab News that he did not vote because, like many others, he was not sure of the benefits of this election.

“Inshallah, in the next election I shall exercise my vote,” he observed. Asked what the candidates should do to bring young voters to the polling booth, Hassan felt they should give more attention to the problems of our generation and get in touch with them on issues of concern to them. “They should organize education camps and sporting events. We also need modern technical training programs that would improve our competitiveness in the job market. Such programs should be funded by those candidates,” said Hassan.

Ali Al-Quraishi, a young Saudi sports writer, said the candidates were “dream merchants” who were only trying to sell their vision. “They did not have a clear agenda that talked about youth problems. A large number of youth could not get enough information about the election process and its importance. The government should have given more time for the election campaign.”

Asked to explain the poor response among the youth, Faleh Al-Rashid, a Saudi student, said the elections took place at the wrong time. “Who will come to vote on a wintry day after most of us had a night out? How can one expect the youth to come to the polling booth when they like to spend the weekend driving cars, hot-rodding and going on a wild goose chase?” he asked with a mischievous smile.