JEDDAH, 19 April 2005 — A number of candidates at the first precinct in Jeddah packed up their campaign tents just two days before Thursday’s balloting in the third and final phase of Saudi Arabia’s landmark municipal elections.
Observers consider the candidates’ action as an indication of expected defeat, after they realized that by pursuing their campaign they would only spend huge amounts of good money after bad without a chance of winning.
Among several campaign tents that sprouted in the area, there are only five left now. Two of the candidates, Basem Akhdar and Mohammad Al-Asmari, run what they think is formal election campaign. Two other candidates, Maeid Al-Malki and Rashed Al-Zahrani, are welcoming voters to their tents but without badgering them any special agenda. A fifth candidate, Mansour Al-Selimi who pitched his tent away from the population center, seems to have resigned to being an also-ran.
The departing candidates could not match the tough competition that flared in the first precinct in the past few days. Each candidate had set a different costly strategy to attract voters’ attention to his campaign tent.
The tent of contestant Bassam Akhdar was always abuzz with regular lectures given by well-known public figures.
Candidate Al-Asmari gave a poetic twist to his campaign to attract voters to his tent. He organized several sessions of popular folklore and even invited celebrated poets to recite their poems in front of the voters.
There was of course another side to the campaign saga, with the less fortunate candidates struggling to be a poor excuse for the opulence of the wealthy.
Candidates Maeid Al-Malki and Rashed Al-Zahrani had their tents set for people to listen, share and discuss their opinions face to face with the voters. There were no feasts, no lectures and no entertainment programs of any sort.
