"My ministry is not responsible for elections. It is vested on a specialized committee that sets out the rules and regulations for nominations and participants. It will discuss prospects of women's participation in the coming elections as well as the nature of such participation," he said while answering a question.
Prince Mansour, who recently set up an election commission under the chairmanship of Abdul Rahman Al-Dahmash to hold the polls on April 23, made this comment while speaking to businessmen during an open forum organized by the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Riyadh.
According to some sources, women will not be allowed to participate in elections this time as authorities are not yet prepared for it. Women were barred as both voters and candidates in 2005, the first time municipal elections took place in the Kingdom.
It was promised that women would be able to vote in the next elections, scheduled for 2009. However, these were postponed. One of the reasons given was that more time was required to organize the logistics so that women could vote.
The Kingdomwide polls will elect members to 219 municipal councils. It will only be the second time they have been held since 2005 after incumbent members had their terms extended for a second term.
Around half of citizens are not satisfied with the work of their councils, a survey said. They said the councils did not help in resolving important local issues and were not able to protect public property.
Some council members who did not want to be identified attributed the poor performance of the councils to a lack of sufficient resources and also the lack of executive powers. They said the councils were limited to a supervisory role only.
During his discourse with businessmen, Prince Mansour said his ministry was successful in privatizing many municipal activities. He emphasized the strategic cooperation between his ministry and the private sector.
He also pointed out that the ministry currently holds land that can meet 60 percent of requests for constructing homes. "We should make sure that this land is used for building houses," he added.
