“The government officials have already been asked to proceed to the polling booths across the Kingdom,” said an official of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs in Riyadh.
“Pre-election monitoring is continuing, while all necessary measures have been taken to ensure smooth polling on Sept. 29,” said the official, on condition of anonymity.
“A number of nongovernment organizations have been involved to supervise the poll process,” said Tarek Al-Qasabi, a member of the Riyadh municipality who was elected in the 2005 polls.
He expressed hope that the election would be held in a “joyful, peaceful and fair manner.”
A total of 5,323 men are competing in the upcoming municipal elections for 816 seats in 285 municipal councils spread across the Kingdom.
The municipal councils will be formally created in October and will have a term of four years, said Al-Qasabi.
The voters will cast their ballots from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 752 polling stations set up across the country. The turnout is expected to be high.
Referring to the role of lawyers in the entire poll process, a statement from the National Committee of Lawyers said: “The lawyers registered with the Ministry of Justice would monitor the poll in coordination with other government agencies.”
It added: “The lawyers, who are being sent to various locations in the Kingdom to supervise the poll and to ensure legal compliance, will submit their reports to the concerned authorities after the election.”
This is in addition to an executive panel for the election and an 11-member election commission headed by Abdul Rahman Al-Dahmash, which will be nodal points of contacts for all government agencies and NGOs. But, two premier organizations - the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) and the Saudi Journalists Association - have reportedly refused to play any role in the election this year.
The NSHR said in a report recently that it has decided not to monitor the poll in protest of the exclusion of women from voting and contesting this year.
All candidates in the fray, according to an earlier circular, will stop campaigning for votes by Wednesday. However, campaigning on social networking sites intensified on Monday, said Waleed K. Qutbi, a software engineer.
The elections, only the second in Saudi Arabia’s history, are for half of the seats in the Kingdom’s municipal councils. The government appoints the other half.
Riyadh, with 956 candidates and 54 voting centers, tops all regions in terms of the number of candidates and polling booths, while the eastern Al-Ahsa town is bottom with only 99 candidates.
As in the landmark elections for municipal council seats held in 2005, women are banned from participating in this year’s poll. However, they will be allowed to vote and contest municipal elections by 2015 as per the announcement of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah on Sunday.
According to the electoral commission, more than 1.2 million Saudi men have been registered to vote this year. Municipal elections and chamber of commerce elections are the only forms of public vote in Saudi Arabia at the moment.
The Sept. 29 poll was originally scheduled for 2009, but in May that year, the Saudi government extended the existing council’s mandate by two years, delaying the vote.
It was noticed that the current election is not that popular, unlike the 2005 election, which was considered very hot since it was held for the first time.
Abed Al-Harbi, a 29-year-old Saudi, said he holds a voting card but is not going to cast his ballot because he believes it is useless.
He said many candidates gave golden promises before the last election but nothing changed after the poll.
Fellow citizen Khaled Al-Harthi, 32, said he decided not to vote for anyone because he did not see any improvement in the municipal services provided.
He said there is a lack of trust in the municipal council.
“I hope this time people will vote for the right choices, for those who are willing to change things. Sadly, most voters are giving their votes to those who will benefit them personally and not for the best candidate,” he added.
Adel Al-Qushairi, 26, said: “Let’s examine the achievements of the previous municipal council. What did they achieve since they were elected? Nothing. I am not keen on participating in the election this time because nothing is changing and the same problems exist. I think their role is supervisory and they do not hold any executive powers.”
