“We are fully prepared,” said Mayor Dhaifullah bin Ayesh Al-Otaibi, who heads the committee in charge of municipal elections. “Nearly 100 electoral centers have been set up in the region’s different cities and districts for Saudis to choose members of 21 municipal councils.”

Saudis who did not sign up for the last ballot will be encouraged to register. The electoral lists will be updated, Al-Otaibi told Arab News Saturday. Previous voters who changed addresses can update their information at the centers.

The elections were originally slated for Oct. 31, 2009, but were delayed to expand the electorate and study possible suffrage for women. Women were barred from the last elections and will remain on the sidelines in the upcoming poll on Sept. 22.

Half of the local council seats will be decided by voters and the other half appointed by the government. Al-Otaibi said election officials are being trained and the committee will keep the media informed of developments during the run up to the balloting.

Although skepticism about the elections abounds in the Arabic media, young Saudis interviewed by Arab News seemed anxious to cast their votes.

“We have seen how people participated in large numbers in the Asharqia Chamber elections last year,” said Mansour Al-Oraifi, 39, who works for a multinational company based in Ras Tanura. “There were similar reports that people lacked interest, but in the end there was a large turnout and the whole experience was enlightening. This election will be contested fiercely. Who would not want to run? My family members will be in the race, and we will all canvass very hard to get them elected.”

Al-Oraifi was mum on the disenfranchisement of women.

“That is the decision that the government has taken,” he told said. “I can’t comment on that.”

In many Eastern Province districts, interested candidates already are busy drawing up lists of possible supporters.

“It is a sign of prestige to be on the municipal council, and if you happen to be an elected member then you earn all the more respect,” said Mufreh Al-Qahtani, a tribal elder from An-Nariya.

He says he ran in the 2005 elections but lost by a thin margin.

“If we had worked a little harder we would have won. This time inshaAllah I hope to make it,” he said.

The 2005 municipal elections in the Eastern Province saw voting blocks emerge along tribal and liberal-versus-conservative lines. So-called golden lists endorsed by religious scholars also influenced polling. These trends are expected to continue in the upcoming elections. The government has yet to announce when, if ever, Saudi women will get the right to cast ballots in elections.