JEDDAH, 15 December 2004 — Saudi men in the eastern and southern regions yesterday started registering for voting in the landmark municipal elections, as a top official said future public participation in the governing process would depend on the success of the civic polls.
“I believe that future (public) participation in the country will depend on the success of this experience,” Asir Governor Prince Khaled Al-Faisal said after registering his name as a voter at a polling station in Abha’s Khalediya District.
“I came to this place to exercise my right and duty as a Saudi citizen and responding to the call of the country’s leadership to exercise the right to select municipal officials,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the governor as saying.
He called upon citizens all over the country to use their franchise to elect the right person to the right place. “I take this opportunity to congratulate the Saudi government and people for going ahead with development programs and taking steps to improve representation in government departments,” Prince Khaled said.
“This is a significant step that deserves participation from all citizens and encouragement from all officials,” he said about the first-ever nationwide elections, which are to be conducted in three phases, to pick half the members of 176 municipal councils.
The regional election committee has set up 48 polling stations in various parts of the Asir region. Hamdan Al-Osaimi, chairman of the committee, said the issuance of a voter card would not take more than two minutes. Some 220,000 Saudis are expected to register in the Eastern Province where the election committee has set up 73 polling stations. Dammam Mayor Ibrahim Balghaneim reported good turnout at many registration centers.
“We will continue the media campaign to enlighten the public on elections and encourage them to register as voters,” the mayor told reporters during a tour of polling stations in the region.
Unlike Riyadh, registration in the Eastern Province is carried out manually. “We have found the use of computers for registration expensive as it will be used only once. We’ll do the registration by hand and send the forms to Riyadh to complete other formalities,” the mayor said. There will be 14 municipal councils in the Eastern Province with six to 14 members.
