The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs' General Administration for Municipal Councils Affairs has barred six of the 53 candidates in the second municipal elections in Najran. Those barred from contesting elections include Zaid Bin Ali Bin Shuwail, current Chairman of Najran's Municipal Council, it was announced at the administration's website. Bin Shuwail's exclusion has come as a surprise for the residents of Najran. Social networking sites are freely discussing his exclusion and demanding the reversal of the decision claiming that he meets all conditions and had a role in uncovering manipulations inside Najran's Mayor's Office. Attempts by Okaz/Saudi Gazette to reach Judai Al-Qahtani, Director General of Municipal Elections Affairs and official spokesman for municipal elections, failed. However, Ali Oun Al-Yami, spokesman for the Local Supervision Committee for Municipal Elections in the region, said the final list of the candidates will be announced next Saturday – although the names were announced online – through electoral committees in the region. He said when a candidate gets excluded that means he does not meet the stipulated conditions. Bin Shuwail said he was not officially informed of his exclusion “but I found my name, and the names of five others not included in the names announced at the General Administration for Municipal Affairs' website.” “In regulation there is nothing justifying the exclusion,” he said.
