According to the survey, 71.6 percent of the 387 people polled said the council’s performance was very bad while 15.2 percent said it was good. Only 7.5 percent said it was “very good.”

Talking to Arab News, a number of dissatisfied residents said the council had failed to fulfill its promises. They also said civic services, including cleanliness and supervision of shops to check prices, were deteriorating.

Some of them described its performance during the flooding crises of November 2009 and January 2011 as “catastrophic.”

The council rejected the criticism and said on its website that it had made a number of remarkable achievements.

The council said its performance during the rain crises was excellent and added that it was able to fight dengue fever and end the problem of fly-tipping.

With the six-year term of the council coming to an end, a number of its members told Arab News that they were not planning to run again in the municipal elections, to be conducted at the end of this month.

According to the chairman of the elections committee, Abdul Rahman bin Muhammad Al-Dahmash, balloting would start on Thursday Sept. 29 in 752 polling centers all over the Kingdom.

Al-Dahmash said coordination was made with the local elections committee to make the process a success. He added that all concerned government departments were thoroughly briefed on their role.

Spokesman of the committee Jidiea bin Nahar Al-Qahtani said candidates would begin their election campaigns on Sept. 18, the day following the announcement of the final list of candidates, and would continue for 11 days.

He said voters would elect a total of 816 members to municipal councils in all provinces.