Results of Thursday's municipal council elections started trickling in Saturday from various regions of the Kingdom. The new municipal councils will be constituted on Oct. 16 after completion of all formalities and appeals, election authorities have announced. The formalities of lodging appeals by losing candidates, or hearing complaints about candidates overstepping the bounds of campaigning or breaking the rules set up by the electoral commission will all be completed within the next fortnight. The final list of the members of all municipal councils will be available only on that day, as the last day to take action on appeals is Oct. 15. In Riyadh, winners were Fuad Abdul Rahman Al-Rasheed (44%) from District 1, Abdul Razaq Bin Antar Al-Eneizi (19.1%) from District 2, Waleed Abdul Lateef Al-Suwaidan (42.9%) from District 3, Issa Bin Sulaiman Al-Issa (32.4%) from District 4, Abdul Rahman Bin Abdullah Al-Mohana (37%) from District 5, Othman Abdul Aziz Al-Othman (19.7%) from District 6 and Khalid Abdul Rahman Al-Oraidi (37.3%) from District 7 in addition to the winners from Riyadh governorates and municipalities such as Al-Kharj, Al-Dar'eyah and Al-Mo'jama. Ibrahim Muhammad Al-Khalil, Chairman of the Local Committee of Municipal Elections in Asir region, announced the names of the winning candidates in Asir, Khamis Mushayt and the governorates including Bisha and Dhahran Al-Janoub. Al-Khalil commended the voting process and said that it reflected a “high level of public awareness”. Dr. Hani Abu Ras, Jeddah Mayor and Chairman of the Local Committee of Municipal Elections, announced the names of the winning candidates in several Jeddah municipalities including Rabegh Governorate, Ghamiqa Municipality, Khlees Municipality and Al-Leith Municipality. Local newspapers said fewer than 10 percent of eligible voters had cast their votes in some areas of Jeddah while in nearby governorates the turnout had reached up to 60 percent.
