Saudi Arabia will hold its first nationwide elections early next year in a vote for municipal councils seen as the first concrete political reform in the absolute monarchy, the government said on Saturday.
Municipal Affairs Minister Prince Mutib bin Abdul-Aziz said the first ballots, for councils in the Riyadh capital district, will be held on February 10. Elections for councils in other regions will take place on March 3 and April 21.
The conservative Gulf kingdom said nearly a year ago it would hold the elections after pressure from the United States and domestic reformers for greater political participation and freedom of expression.
Saturday’s announcement came exactly three years after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States which were carried out mainly by Saudi hijackers and prompted Washington to encourage its long-standing ally to speed up change.
A government source had said the first round of elections would be held in November, after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. But Prince Mutib said preparations for the vote would take at least until the end of the year to complete.
Voter registration in the capital region will not be finalized before late December and candidates will have until December 30 to register for an election campaign lasting from January 29 to February 9, he said.
Half the council members are expected to be elected while the rest will be appointed. Officials have not yet decreed whether women, who are still forbidden to drive in Saudi Arabia, will be allowed to vote or stand in the elections.
Diplomats have welcomed the planned vote as a step forward in Saudi Arabia’s cautious reform program but say it is unclear whether candidates will have time to develop any clear platform for the election campaign.
Dynastic rule
Saudi Arabia has been under the dynastic rule of the house of Saud since its foundation in the 1930s, although local elections were held in western Hejaz province until the 1960s.
Along with international calls, an increase in violence from militants opposed to the monarchy over the last few years has also ratcheted up pressure on the rulers of the world’s biggest oil exporter to introduce political reforms.
But Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and home to Islam’s holiest sites, says it will not allow political change to be influenced by outside pressure.
It has also cracked down on some domestic advocates of reform. Three prominent activists are on trial, charged with causing instability and circulating political petitions.
The second stage of polling will take place in the east and south of the kingdom in March. The last stage will be held in the rest of the country -- including the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and the Red Sea port city of Jeddah -- in April.
