RIYADH, 30 October 2004 — Access to Saudi municipal elections is now a click away with the launch of a website dedicated to the poll scheduled to take place early next year.
“The bilingual website (Arabic/English), www.saudielection.com, is the only one of its kind providing an update on the municipal and the chambers of commerce elections throughout the Kingdom,” Turk Faisal Al-Rasheed, president of Golden Grass and webmaster of the new website, told Arab News. He said it contains a wealth of information on election news from both Arabic and English sources.
To access the information, one needs to log on to the website. The home page that opens provides details of the contents, with the options available in both the languages.
Al-Rasheed said all election news, including official announcements, polling dates, arrangements for polling booths and related items have been published on both the Arabic and English versions. The webmaster has called on the candidates to use the website to announce their candidacy as well as their policies and programs. Personality profiles of the candidates will also be available for Internet browsers.
He said the website has been linked both to Arab News (www.arabnews.com) and www.Yahind.com, enabling visitors to these websites to link up with www.saudielection.com and vice versa.
Saudi Arabia’s first-ever municipal elections will be conducted in three phases from February next year and ending in March. The elections to pick half the members of 178 municipal councils in the Kingdom’s 13 regions will be held under this phased program, while the rest will be nominated. Women’s representatives contend that there should be some provision for them as well in the list of nominees.
Elections in the Riyadh region will be conducted in the first phase. The second phase will cover the Eastern Province as well as the Asir, Baha, Jizan and Najran regions. The third phase of elections in the regions of Makkah, Madinah, Qasim, Al-Jouf, the Northern Border Region, Tabuk and Hail will be held after Haj.
