|
The
second phase of voting in Saudi Arabia's municipal elections is
set for today in Eastern Province,
Asir, Jizan, Najran, and Baha Regions. This item
provides articles addressing today's polling and the general
issues surrounding the elections in Saudi Arabia.
EP
Municipal Elections Today
Molouk Y. Ba-Isa, Arab News
ALKHOBAR, 3
March 2005 � Today the Eastern Province elects its municipal
representatives after a two-week campaign that was largely split
down sectarian lines. Doctors, lawyers, engineers and other highly
educated professionals are among the candidates vying for
municipal council seats.
But
education and experience were not of foremost importance when
people considered potential candidates. Perceived religious
affiliation was the overwhelming factor in attracting supporters.
Next came tribal and familial alliances, and only after those were
considered, was possible suitability for the council position of
any importance.
�Shia,
Sunni, Islamist or reformist these were the first points that we
must know about any candidate,� said registered voter Fahad Al-Qahtani.
�Then we checked whether he might be one of our relatives, even
distantly. Since this is the first election, no one has any
experience in politics. I don�t believe that a highly educated
man would serve my interests any better than my cousin.�
That
might be so but many candidates discovered to their dismay
that most of their friends and relatives never registered to
vote and thus couldn�t support them. Population numbers
published in 2003 by the Eastern Province Chamber of
Commerce put total Saudi male population in the Eastern
Region at approximately 1,182,000.
Of
that number only about 140,000 registered to vote. Even if
perhaps just 50 percent of the total male Saudi population
were eligible to vote due to factors such as age and
military service, the voter registration was still
distressingly low. Voters in the Asir, Baha, Jizan and
Najran regions will also go to polls today in the second
phase of elections aimed at picking half the members of the
country�s 178 municipal councils. The General Election
Commission has appointed more than 400 officials to monitor
elections at 222 polling stations in the five regions today.
Saudis
in the Riyadh region elected their members on Feb. 10 in the
first phase. Elections in Makkah, Madinah, Qasim, Tabuk,
Hail, Al-Jouf and the Northern Border Province will take
place on April 21 in the last phase.
Convincing
People to Take a Small Step
Abeer
Mishkhas, [email protected]
"During
a roundtable media discussion with British
journalists last week in London, one commented that
municipal elections in Saudi Arabia were only a
miniscule step towards democracy. He observed that
other countries, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, were
actually holding presidential elections, which
signified political maturity and the drastic changes
taking place in those countries.
"For
my part, I said that no matter how small the step, I
think it matters to every Saudi. Our problem,
however, is not in what kind of elections we have
but rather that we simply have no idea of what
elections are or are supposed to accomplish. The
entire political concept is very hazy here; people
have different ideas about elections, most of them
acquired from reading about other countries�
experiences or watching TV coverage of other
countries� elections. I suggested that this lack
of awareness was an important factor in low voter
turnout in Riyadh."
[more]
Of the
voters who have registered, some have decided not to vote
anyway. �Not one candidate has spoken about youth issues,�
claimed one 21-year-old university student. �I hope on the
ballot there is a box to check which reads �none of these
candidates is acceptable,� because that�s the only box I�m
interested in registering my vote for.�
Some
religious leaders got into the election fray by commenting
on the candidates� campaign tactics. In last Friday�s
sermon, Sheikh Mohammed Saleh Al-Munajid speaking at the
Omar ibn Abdul Aziz Mosque stated that the enormous
photographs on campaign posters were unacceptable. He
pointed out that in any case such photographs were
unnecessary, because people shouldn�t vote for a candidate
based on his appearance. He also commented that he
considered the amount of money being poured into advertising
for the election to be extravagant.
Women
have stood on the fringes of the campaign, becoming
increasingly frustrated as the election approached.
Disenfranchised, they were still inundated with SMS messages
and brochures were pushed at them in shopping centers and
coffee shops in the hopes that they would influence their
male relatives.
However,
women who offered to help with candidates� campaigns were
politely but firmly refused. One female international
correspondent who attempted to listen to a discourse being
piped through loudspeakers at one candidate�s tent in
Dammam was instructed to leave.
This
was even though she was seated in the back seat of an
automobile in a public parking area. Another candidate when
asked to have his photograph taken by this journalist,
declined. He stated that although he was not an extremist by
any means, he didn�t want to risk any sort of association
with a woman at this time. The situation concerning women�s
involvement in the campaigns is slightly better in Al-Qatif
where the entire community is working hard to ensure Shiite
candidates take all five municipal seats.
�Although
we cannot vote, these candidates are supposed to represent
us, too,� said Om Muntassir from Alkhobar. �Many
candidates tell my husband that they are interested in
supporting women�s employment and women�s voting, but I
find it disturbing that most of the candidates do not want
to speak with me, even if I reach them on their mobile
numbers. If they don�t want to talk to me now, I don�t
think they�ll have much interest in speaking with me after
they are elected.�
Reprinted
with permission of Arab
News
|
