RIYADH – Saudi Arabia plans to begin municipal elections next month, the first political concession from the conservative US ally since protests sweeping the region hit the kingdom, a government website said on Wednesday. The announcement on the website of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs did not say if women would be able to take part or give more details. “The first phase of the elections will start on Saturday, 19/5/1432,” it said, a date in the Islamic calendar that is likely to fall on April 23. The govt is trying to stave off a wave of unrest that toppled the rulers of Egypt and Tunisia and that has spread to neighbouring Yemen, Bahrain and Oman. Rights activists said the elections were a gimmick.
“The elections will not have an effect or bring stability to the kingdom because people understand that it’s a political gimmick,” said political activist Mohammed al-Qahtani. The Saudi family dominates political life, political parties are banned and there is no elected parliament. The municipal councils are half filled by appointees by Saudi princes who occupy provincial governor positions and have little power. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, held elections for half of the seats on municipal councils in 2005 for the first time over 40 years. They were held then in several stages and excluded women from voting or running as candidates. Those elections were seen as ushering in a new era of reform under Abdullah. But since then political openings have dried up, while the king has continued to liberalise bits of the economy and outflank hardline clerics seens as sympathetic to Qaeda.
DELAYED IN 2009: Municipal polls were due again in 2009 but the government announced a delay of two years. The web statement said the ministry began preparing for the new elections several months ago before a final deadline for holding the votes in October. Media made no fanfare around the election announcement, which the ministry statement presented as a routine affair according to fixed schedules. A Western diplomat said it was possible that April 23 was only a date in the process of organising elections which would be held sometime by October. King Abdullah announced a massive $93 billion in social handouts last week, including funding for the security forces and religious establishment, that analysts said aimed to mollify the population and key pillars of Saudi family rule.
But there were no political concessions. The one acknowledgement of criticism appeared to be the creation of a new body with a large budget to fight corruption. Minority Shias have staged marches in the Eastern Province, where most of Saudi Arabia’s oil fields are located, but few Sunnis in major cities answered a Facebook call for protests on March 11. They would have faced a massive security deployment on the streets if they had tried. The clerics, who are given wide powers of control in society in a historical pact with the Saudi family, have attacked protests in Saudi Arabia as un-Islamic.
