The voter turnout in last week's second municipal elections was only 40 percent as some people called for a poll boycott, the General Committee of Elections said in a report. People were encouraged to refrain from voting to express opposition to the councils' lack of executive and monitoring powers and the decisions to exclude some candidates without providing reasons, as well as to support women's rights, according to the report carried by Al-Hayat Arabic newspaper. Several women's rights activists used social networking websites to encourage registered voters to skip the election, the report added. Of the 1.08 million registered voters, only 432,559 cast ballots, the report said. Although there were 500 monitors for 726 election centers, only 80 percent of the centers were covered because some monitors were assigned to more than one center, Dr. Majed Groub, chairman of the National Monitoring Council, said. Across the country, voter turnout was highest in the Northern Frontier region, where it reached 66.5 percent, and second-highest, 61.9 percent, in Hail, the report said. In the Makkah region, Jeddah had the lowest voting rate, 22.7 percent, and Madina had 44 percent, which was the highest in the region. There was 36 percent turnout in the Riyadh region, 34 percent in the Eastern Province, 43 percent in the Qassim region and 48 percent in Tabuk, according to the report.
