Municipal Councilors to Have Role of Observers Only’
Javid Hassan, Arab News
RIYADH, 1 August 2007 — Municipal councilors who won the 2005 elections that were held Kingdomwide will only play the role of observers in collecting information from their constituencies and reporting back to their respective municipal councils, according to the legislative framework that is currently in the works.
“They will not be able to do anything to redress the grievances of citizens who elected them from their constituencies,” Turki Faisal Al-Rasheed, founder and CEO of the website www.saudielection.com, told Arab News.
In other words, they will not be able to deliver on their manifesto presented to the electorate in 2005.
Al-Rasheed, who monitored the municipal elections held in the Kingdom two years ago, was responding to a question from Arab News on what has delayed the municipal councils in running.
Citing official sources, he said that the municipal councils would not be up and running until the regulatory framework has been completed.
“The relationship between the representatives and the municipal councils also needs to be defined. It is a time-consuming process, but work in this direction is going on,” he said.
Municipal elections for 178 municipalities throughout the Kingdom were held in 2005 from Feb. 10 to April 21. The elections were meant to elect 50 percent of seats in the municipal councils, with the remaining seats to be filled by nominations.
The elections, which were part of the Saudi government’s efforts to introduce political reform, were held in three stages: the first was held on Feb. 10 in and around Riyadh, the second in the east and southwest of the Kingdom on Mar. 3, and the third was held in the north on April 21.
Male citizens over the age of 21 voted for half of the members of their municipal councils.
On Oct. 11, 2004, Minister of Interior Prince Naif told a Kuwaiti newspaper that women would not be able to run as candidates or vote in elections.
Election officials then noted logistic difficulties, such as the lack of separate women’s voting booths and the fact that many women do not have their own identity cards, as well as opposition from conservative elements in society. However, the government has promised that women will be eligible to vote in the next elections that are due in 2009.
Al-Rasheed said the Saudi municipal elections were more transparent than those held in Bahrain and the UAE. “I monitored all the municipal council elections held in the Kingdom and even reported some irregularies to the media,” he added.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=99154&d=1&m=8&y=2007