RIYADH, 16 March 2005 — The Saudi Association for Media and Communication (SAMC) will train a large number of Saudis to act as election monitors in the upcoming Jeddah municipal elections scheduled for April 21.
This was disclosed to Arab News by Dr. Ali Shewel Al-Garni, president of SAMC, which is a member of the Coordinating Council for Election Monitoring, along with the Saudi Journalists Association, the National Society for Human Rights and other civic organizations.
Dr. Al-Garni said SAMC’s job would be to ensure that the candidates observe the rules and regulations of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs. “We want to prevent a recurrence of the incident that took place in Hafr Al-Batin up north, where the candidates sought to influence the electorate leading to the annulment of the elections and a repoll on March 5.”
Dr. Al-Garni said: “We are planning to send election monitors to various democratic countries both in the West and elsewhere to study election practices there. In the light of their experience, the election laws could be re-examined, since it’s our first experience in this field.”
Asked to comment on the two rounds of elections held so far, he said the large number of candidates chasing a limited number of seats has put the voters in a dilemma. “They don’t know how to deal with the situation. In Riyadh, for example, we had 600 candidates contesting seven seats, while in the Eastern Province, more than 206,650 voters and 800 candidates were registered.”
Dr. Al-Garni thinks one way out of this confusing situation would be to have two-stage elections consisting of a first round and an elimination round. Only candidates who have emerged successful in the first round could prove their mettle in the second round with a clear message and a firm commitment to the voter.
He observed that there should also be a ceiling on election expenditure, as in one case a candidate spent more than SR10 million. By putting a cap on election expenditure, the focus would shift to the candidate’s merits, he added. This aspect would also come up for review.
Dr. Al-Garni disclosed that the Ministry of Interior has started registering Saudi women with its Civil Status Department in preparation for issuing identity cards. He described it as a significant move to empower women as voters in the next elections four years from now. “We have noticed that lately the ministry has intensified its drive through the mass media calling on women to register their names in the branch offices of the Civil Status Department.”
