The deadline to challenge the announced results of municipal council elections ends on Saturday evening.

The secretary of the committee in Makkah Ali Al-Qarni said all the five complaints were filed fulfilling all formalities. A decision on these complaints would be taken on a case-by-case basis.

Al-Qarni added that the committee planned to summon some candidates against whom allegations of violations of electoral rules have been made.

He said: “Decisions on complaints would be made without any delay after the deadline so that the final list of municipal councilors is ready by next Saturday.”

The official did not disclose the names of the candidates against whom the complaints were lodged. “The names of candidates who are alleged to have violated regulations and their electoral districts would be disclosed at an appropriate time,” he said.

The Election Complaints Committee in Makkah municipality is headed by Ahmad Hasan Al-Hosni and has Fouad bin Mahfouz and Ali Al-Matrafi as its members in addition to a secretary.

In another development, Chairman of the Election Complaints Committee in Jeddah Omar Al-Khouli said a complaint made by a voter against the winner from Electoral District 4 was baseless. The complaint was that the winner did not reside within the geographical perimeters stipulated by the election regulations. But the committee’s investigations found that the candidate did not violate any regulation.

He also said another complaint made by a voter in Electoral District 2 that he was not allowed to vote was also baseless and so the complaint was rejected.

Last week. Al-Khouli annulled the result of Electoral District 3 in Jeddah. “The Complaints Committee of Municipal Elections canceled the results of Electoral District 3 because of an error on the part of the Supervising Committee of Election Procedures,” Al-Khouli told Arab News on Sunday.

The winner in the district was Abdullah Al-Muhammadi, who polled 381 votes. Al-Khouli said the error committed by the supervising committee involved the moving of the polling center of the district to another location without prior notice a few hours before voting started.

The official said the error confused a large number of voters because they did not know the location of the new polling station. Al-Khouli said many of the complaints received by the committee were not supported by evidence and no complaints would be entertained without proof.

He also said many women citizens demanded the cancellation of the election results, arguing that the election was void without the participation of women.

Head of the Information Center and Support team for municipal elections in Jeddah Abdul Rahman Al-Ghannam said in a media statement recently that municipal officials detected more than 50 violations committed by candidates. He added that the election committee did not disqualify or stop the campaign of the rules-breaking candidates because their violations did not call for such drastic measure.