Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — Registration of voters for the Dec.12 municipal elections is still slow with some of the 1,236 polling centers receiving only a few men and women wishing to register their names as voters and contestants. In Jeddah and its suburbs, a total of 8,300 voters — 7,200 men and 1,100 women — have registered as voters until Saturday. Only about 30 women have registered their names in Jeddah, which has 10 constituencies, to contest the upcoming elections to choose 284 municipal councils of whom two thirds of the members will be elected and the remaining third to be appointed by the minister of municipal and rural affairs. Abdul Malik Al-Junaidi, chairman of the incumbent Jeddah municipal council, said he would not run for the elections and would vote for a woman candidate. He was not happy about the slow turnover of voters and candidates and hoped that their number would go up during the coming days. "Women candidates will have a great chance to win especially since several businesswomen, medical doctors, university teachers and journalists are in the fray," he said. Al-Junaidi hoped that the membership in every council would be balanced consisting of specialized men and women. "The appointees should be men and women specialized in such fields as engineering, architecture, planning, environment and other areas so as to strike a balance in the new councils," he said. He hoped that women, who are participating for the first time as voters and candidates, would reach the councils through polling not appointment. In the Eastern Province, the General Elections Committee, announced that 386 candidates, consisting of 347 men and 39 women, have registered to contest the polls since registration started on August 30. The committee said female candidates constituted about 10 percent of the total number of contestants. It, however, said the number of voters last week jumped to 28,477 consisting of 19,378 men and 9,099 women. Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz Al-Sofayan, the committee's spokesman, said on Thursday alone 11 men and six women have registered as candidates. "The large number of voters is a good indication that the citizens are determined to have powerful municipal councils," he said. In the southern region of Jazan, only three women have registered as candidates in each of Abu Arish and Samtah towns while Uhud Al-Masarha had four female candidates only.
