Informed sources close to the election commission told Arab News that the number of people who registered their names for voting this time was less than that in the previous election, which was held six years ago. However, those who registered in the previous election were not required to re-register this time unless their locations have changed.
Abdul Rahman Al-Dahmash, chairman of the election commission, said only 1.2 million people, who have registered their names, will be able to cast their votes. Among the prospective voters, 397,061 registered their names in the past 27 days.
Election centers in different provinces of the Kingdom pointed out that the number of registered voters was very low compared to the population in each province.
"The citizens were cool to the registration drive as they were disappointed by the municipal councils' work during the last term. They had expected that the councils would improve municipal services but it did not happen," said one analyst.
According to the latest census conducted on April 28, 2010, there are 18,707,576 Saudis including 9,527,173 males representing 50.9 percent and 9,180,403 females. The number of expatriates amounted to 8,429,401 out of whom 5,932,974 were males representing 70.4 percent.
Women are not allowed to vote in the long-delayed municipal elections this year.
"There is nothing to stop the participation of women but this needs some preparations and we cannot make these preparations in all regions of the Kingdom," the commission said in a statement.
Saudi Arabia held phased elections for half the seats on municipal councils in 2005 for the first time in over 40 years. They excluded women from voting or running as candidates. Another round was due in 2009 but the government announced a delay of two years.
