JEDDAH, 27 August 2006 — The defeated candidates of the last year’s municipal elections, who have filed a lawsuit disputing the results of the election, announced here yesterday that the next hearing in the case would be open to the public. The plaintiffs said a lawyer from the United States would represent them.
The group of 150 defeated candidates in Saudi Arabia’s first municipal council elections last year filed a complaint in Jeddah’s Court of Grievances. The complaint revolves around the winners of the elections, which became known collectively as the “Golden List” because of what the plaintiffs claim was unfair backing by local religious scholars.
The plaintiffs allege that these endorsements were unfair and violated rules in Saudi Arabia’s first semi-democratic election, which allowed male adults to vote for half of the seats in the Kingdom’s municipal councils.
The case has been in court since last year. There have been eight hearings so far. The plaintiffs’ spokesman, Ehab Al-Solaimani, said that they successfully petitioned the court to hold the next hearing, scheduled for Sept. 12, in a public forum.
Al-Solaimani said the plaintiffs have hired representation from an US-based international law firm, saying that Saudi lawyers have no experience in elections cases since none have ever occurred in the Kingdom before.
“The American lawyer might know Arabic,” said Al-Solaimani. “If not we’ll translate for him. It won’t be a problem.”
Al-Solaimani said that the request to hold a public hearing was made because the plaintiffs wanted to invite non-governmental organizations to observe the proceedings.
“We don’t want to name the organizations that are coming,” he said. “We’ll do it at the right time. Right before the hearing starts.”
The plaintiffs plan to hold their first press conference following the next hearing.
“We are going to pursue this case till the end,” said Al-Solaimani. “The municipal council must be dissolved according to the law due to the violations that took place.”
