JEDDAH — The registration of candidates for the third municipal council elections scheduled for Dec. 12 started all over the Kingdom on Sunday and will continue for 17 days. The registration had started in Makkah and Madinah a week earlier. For the first time in Saudi history, women were allowed to participate in the elections as voters and candidates in a move described by observers as an advanced step aimed at empowering Saudi women and involving them in the process of decision making. Unlike the two previous municipal council elections, the registration of candidates and voters is taking place simultaneously this time. The turnout, however, has been remarkably slow with some of the 1,237 polling centers all over the Kingdom witnessing nil or a very small numbers of men and women wishing to register their names as voters in the elections. In Madinah, so far 5,676 men and women voters and 79 candidates have registered while in Jazan, a southern city, as many as 2,416 men and 503 women voters have registered. In Najran, another southern city with 19 voting centers for men and 12 for women, the turnout of voters was remarkably low. In Jeddah, which is known for its rich social diversity, the number of voters is less than any elsewhere in the Kingdom. This issue is now being discussed by the General Election Committee. Riyadh, with 14,065 men and women registering, has the highest number of voters so far. The registration of voters started in Makkah and Madinah on Aug. 12, a week before it started elsewhere in the Kingdom because of logistics problems in the two holy cities resulting from the arrival of pilgrims. A candidate should at least be 25 years of age on the day of registration, should have registered as a voter in the constituency he or she wishes to run, should have at least a secondary school education and must not have any criminal record. The categories of people not allowed to run for the elections include, among others, employees of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and municipalities, judges, notaries public, Shoura Council members, tribal chiefs and district mayors.
