The decision to exclude women from voting for "technical" reasons is casting a shadow over the first municipal elections in Saudi Arabia for 40 years, writes Rasheed Abou-Alsamh Registration for Saudi Arabia's first municipal elections in over 40 years began in Riyadh on 23 November. Preparations remain overshadowed by the fact that women have been excluded for the time being from the polls. "Around 14,000 Saudi men have already registered for the election as of 27 November," said Sultan Al-Bazie, media adviser to the General Municipal Elections Committee of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs. In a telephone interview from Riyadh, Al-Bazie told Al- Ahram Weekly that initial reports that some computers had failed for 90 minutes at registration centres, and that some voter ID machines were not working, were minor incidents which occurred on the first day of registration and were solved immediately. The Saudi government had announced on 11 September that the municipal elections, covering half the seats on the 178 municipal councils nationwide, would be held in three phases from 10 February to 21 April 2005. The Riyadh region will vote first, followed by the eastern and southern regions, with the western region, Qasim, Tabuk, Hail and Al-Jouf being the last to go to the polls. Registration in Riyadh will continue until 22 December, with a voters list being published on 25 December. The campaign period for candidates vying for the seven of the 14 council seats that are up for grabs in the Riyadh region will run from 29 January until 9 February 2005. An announcement by the director of prisons on 22 November that 5,000 male prisoners in the Riyadh region would be allowed to vote, caught Saudi women by surprise. Many women expressed shock that criminals would be allowed to participate in the decision-making process, while law-abiding women were still excluded. "It's ridiculous," said Fatin Youssef Bundagji, director of empowerment and research at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and one of the first women to announce her candidacy for the municipal elections before female candidates were barred. "I was totally offended by this news, and I think Saudi men should be equally outraged." Five Saudi women had announced their intention to run, before the election committee dashed their hopes by saying that while women were not excluded by the election law, technical difficulties could not be overcome in time to allow them to vote in this election. Election officials told the press that there were not enough female officials to help register women, and that the fact that at least 50 per cent of Saudi women do not have photo ID cards was a further impediment to the process. Hatoon Al-Fassi, a professor of history at King Saud University in Riyadh, and a leading organiser of female candidates, said that these so-called "problems" were minor hurdles that could easily be overcome. Unfortunately, there does not yet seem to be the political will to overcome societal reluctance to see women vote. Saudi society remains deeply conservative: women are still not allowed to drive and the sexes are forbidden from mingling in public places. "We still have hope that we will see some women sitting on the municipal councils through appointments by the government," said Al-Fassi, referring to the fact that the government is going to appoint half the members of all the councils across the country. While Saudi women seem to have lost the first battle to be allowed to vote and stand in the election, many believe that women's day will eventually come. The only disagreement is over when: this time, or at the next elections four years from now? Abdul-Aziz Abu Hamad Aluwaisheg, a Saudi legal analyst in Riyadh, believes that a female candidate could still file a complaint with the Court of Grievances for being excluded from the election. "There is a legal question of whether the General Election Committee has gone beyond its mandate by categorically excluding a whole category of people. There has to be a decision by a higher authority," explained Aluwaisheg. Apart from the issue of whether or not women would be allowed to participate, the elections have generated little enthusiasm among Saudis, with many believing they are merely window-dressing to appease the Bush administration which has been pushing the kingdom towards democratic reforms since the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. A wave of bloody terrorist attacks by Islamic militants on foreigners and Saudis in the kingdom this past year shocked everyone living here and exposed the fact that all was not well in the peninsula state. The Saudi government hopes that holding elections will go some way to satisfying the public's thirst for democratic change and reform, but the continued imprisonment of three Saudi reformists since last March makes some wonder just how committed the government really is to reform. "They are reluctant to hold elections," said Khaled Al-Dakhil, assistant professor of political sociology at King Saud University in Riyadh. Al-Dakhil also pointed out that a distinction would have to be made between the responsibilities of the new municipal councils and those of the existing regional councils. Despite this initial lack of interest, some believe that there will be a rush of registrants at the end of each registration period in the various provinces, and that the government should do a better job of explaining the democratic process. As Saudi columnist Abeer Mishkhas wrote in the English-language daily Arab News last week, "Awareness campaigns should have been widespread... People in villages and remote places should have been contacted by officials who would have explained the process and procedures. Not everyone understands what elections are and why they are important."
