JEDDAH: The Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs Abdul Lateef Al-Asheikh has introduced new legislative amendments to allow voters to produce a range of identity documents so that they can register for the upcoming elections.

Al-Asheikh amended Article 17 and the second paragraph of Article 20 of the Municipal Council Election law. The amendments involve the registration process, a local publication reported on Thursday.

The changes to Article 17 means that voters will have to prove their age and identity by presenting either their national identity card, the family identity document that has been properly attested, passport, university identity card, or employee identity card that has photographs. Previously, voters could only use their national identity card to register.

The change to the paragraph in Article 20 now requires voters to prove their place of residence with a home rental contract “verified and endorsed by the governorate, the center, the mayor, or the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the region.”

Judai Al-Qahtani, spokesman for the General Committee of the Municipal Elections, said the amendments follow election officials finding that some voters were finding it hard to register for the Dec. 12 polls because they did not have certain identity cards.

Meanwhile, the Commerce and Industry Ministry has stated that it does not have the powers to act against citizens colluding with real estate companies to register fake addresses so that they can vote for their favorite candidates in certain constituencies.

This comes in the wake of election centers a few days ago receiving several fake documents from citizens showing falsely that they lived in certain areas, a local publication reported.