Saudi Arabia is set to take a first, albeit timid, step towards "limited democracy", reports Rasheed Abu Alsamh from Jeddah With the announcement early in August of the timetable for municipal elections to be held all around the country, the Saudi government stuck to its previously announced decision to introduce limited democracy in the Kingdom. The elections are slated to be held in three phases. In the first phase, voters in the Riyadh region will choose half the members of their municipal councils in November. The second phase will take place in the Eastern Province as well as the Asir, Baha, Jizan and Najran regions just before the Haj pilgrimage in late January. The third and last phase of the elections will be after the Haj, in late February, in the regions of Mecca, Medina, Qasim, Al-Jouf, the Northern Border region, Tabuk and Hail. In all, 178 municipal councils will be formed, with half of their members directly elected and the other half appointed by the government. Each councilor's term will be four years. To the outside world, elections in the absolute monarchy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may seem like an oxymoron. But Saudis are not strangers to limited forms of democracy. Regular municipal elections were held in the Hejaz region of the country, namely in Mecca and Jeddah, from the 1940s until 1979. The government stopped the municipal elections to what was then called the Majlis Baladi during the reign of King Faisal Ibn Abdul-Aziz, ostensibly to review the effectiveness of the elections. Many pro-reform Saudis saw this as a move to quell dissent and have been pushing for their re-instatement ever since. Other Saudis have been even bolder, calling for all the members of the consultative Shura Council to be directly elected. Currently, members of the council -- which acts as a parliament by drafting laws and presenting legislation to the government for approval -- are all appointed by the government. Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul-Aziz, who runs the day-to- day affairs of the Kingdom, has been the driving force behind the reforms. He initiated a series of national dialogues in 2003, the latest one held last May in Medina to discuss women's issues, as a way to air the grievances of the Saudi population and provide a way to reconciliation and progress. Some critics of the Saudi government say that it is moving too slowly and only then under pressure from the Bush administration, which has been pushing an initiative for democratic reform in the Middle East. But Jamal Khashoggi, former editor in chief of the liberal daily newspaper Al-Watan and currently press advisor to Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, disagrees. "They don't want to do a fake, ambivalent election. If they wanted to they would have done so a long time ago," Khashoggi told Al-Ahram Weekly. Yet with the registration of voters slated to begin only in September, some, including Khashoggi, have warned of potential chaos and the difficulty of setting up the electoral process. "How will you register a million voters in Riyadh from now to November without a few hiccups?" asked Khashoggi. He pointed out how the rush to renew Saudi passports earlier this year, when all Saudis were required to trade in their old passports for new digitised ones, caused chaos at passport offices across the country. Yet he remains upbeat about the whole process, stressing how this is a necessary step in the education and progress of the country. "The elections are going to work. It's as if we're entering a serious graduate school," explained Khashoggi. "We have to work hard for that and we have to make it work. It's not an extravagance, it's a must." Abdullah Dahlan, a prominent businessman and former head of the influential Jeddah Chambers of Commerce and Industry, was one of the first to announce his intention to stand in the elections. "I call on other businessmen to run in the elections so that they can give a realistic picture of the importance of their work and their role in development," he said. "The elections are going to be a bridge between citizens and decision makers, provided that the process is handled with transparency and independence." Already scores of businessmen and academics from around the Kingdom have announced their intention to stand in the municipal elections. Among them are businessman Awad Al-Dossi of Jeddah, academic Rashid Al-Rajih and Adel Kaaki both from Makkah. Fifteen people have filed their nominations in Asir, while 10 important figures are expected to run in Yanbu. Under the rules and regulations issued by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Saudis 21 years of age and older will be allowed to vote. Candidates for the municipal councils will be screened by a joint committee composed of officials from the municipal affairs and interior ministries. The results of all elections will be subject to final approval of the government, with the government reserving the right to stop any candidate from assuming office if deemed in the national interest to do so. Yet a burning question remains: Will women be allowed to stand for election and to vote? The electoral rules were written using the plural pronoun when referring to Saudis, which in Arabic uses the male form. Some Saudi women saw this as a good sign, insisting that by not explicitly barring them from the elections, women were going to be allowed to vote. Hatoun Al-Fassi, assistant professor of history at King Saud University in Riyadh and an activist for women's rights, is one of these Saudi women who refuse to believe that women will be excluded from the elections. "There is nothing in the [electoral] bylaws that stops women from standing and voting," Al-Fassi told the Weekly. "Women in Saudi Arabia are positive that they can participate in the elections. Registration of voters will take place in public schools, so women voters could easily be registered in girl's schools." Yet even she admits that there is a slim possibility that women may be barred from the polls. "They may come up with something to stop women voting, but I don't think the conservatives are against this in religious terms," said Al-Fassi. Indeed, a former Saudi diplomat, who asked for anonymity, stressed that there is nothing in Islam that bars women from elections or from holding governmental positions. Al-Fassi said that the Kingdom has a duty to uphold the international agreements it has signed, including the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. "If Saudi Arabia doesn't follow these conventions, it won't set a good precedent," she said. Khashoggi told the Weekly that he thinks women will not be allowed to vote. "The initial plan was to allow women to vote, but people moved in at the last minute. Women are not going to vote according to some unofficial sources," he said. "Unfortunately, the issue of women not being enfranchised will overshadow the positive news of elections," Khashoggi said. "Many people said it would have been easier to include women from the beginning than having to issue a decree later -- just as with the issue of women driving." Nevertheless, not all women are unhappy with being excluded from the vote, at least initially. "The elections are good, they are a step forward," said Abeer Mishkhas, a columnist in the English-language daily Arab News. "But I don't think this society is ready for women to run for elections just yet. Let's let the men do it first. It's going to be messy, so let's see how it goes first with men." Many unanswered questions remain, such as are candidates going to be able to campaign and hold public meetings; will they be allowed to put up campaign posters in the streets; how much will the elections cost the government and how will voting districts be drawn up? So far, government officials have kept mum, insisting that all these questions will be answered very soon. In the meantime, the whole world is watching and the Saudi government seems to be aware that honest and credible elections will be a boost to both its credibility abroad and, more importantly, at home
