RIYADH,
February 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Coming in
droves, thousands of avid Saudis flocked to polling stations across
the kingdom to cast their ballots in the first round of municipal
elections, for the first time in the country’s history.
More
than 150,000 registered voters will choose half the members of
Riyadh’s 14-seat council.
The
other half will be appointed by the government.
Around
200 polling stations in Riyadh and surrounding areas will remain open
until 5:00 pm (1400 GMT).
The
boxes were checked before the voting started by Mohammad Al-Yamani, an
academic acting as monitor.
A
total of 1,818 candidates are running in the three-phased elections
for 592 seats in 178 municipal councils.
Voting
in the second round, which covers the Eastern Province and the
southwest, will take place on March 3.
Voters
in the western regions of Makkah and Madinah, as well as the northern
regions, will not be going to the polls until April 21.
Voices
Heard
“It's
just a start -- an opportunity for people to make their voices
heard,” said businessman Mohammad Al-Faqeer, who voted at the
polling station in east Riyadh, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Faqeer,
who could have elected up to seven municipal council members -- one
from each of the capital's seven districts -- said he had picked just
three because he knows them.
“One
of them is my brother,” he said.
“(Voting)
is a national duty,” said Abdullah Al-Issa, in his 60s, who was one
of the first to vote at a public school turned into a polling center
in the fourth district of Olaya-Sulaimaniya, where voters cast their
ballots in one of three plastic ballot boxes.
Women
Excluded
 |
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A voter gestures after casting his vote in municipal elections in Riyadh. (Reuters)
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Meanwhile,
the exclusion of women from voting drew criticism, especially that
authorities allowed no less than 5,000 convicts to cast their ballots.
“An
all-male election is a lopsided one. When you exclude 50 percent of
the society and allow criminal prisoners to vote this is an insult to
9 million women,” historian Hatoon Fassi was quoted as saying by
Reuters.
“Their
message to us is that we’re not citizens, we’re not worthy, that
we don’t exist”, said Fassi, who lobbied in vain for women to be
able to vote and stand as candidates in the elections.
“This
discrimination, this treatment of women as if we're minors, is
killing. We face it every day in our lives,” she regretted.
Women
said they had hopes after pledges were made by the kingdom's rulers to
push for reforms and give women some rights.
It
all came to nothing though.
“Changing
the situation of women depends purely on a serious political will. If
there is a will, women's conditions will improve. It happened when
there was a political determination to have girls’ schools,” said
Mona, a 43-year-old academic.
A
group of Saudi women petitioned Crown Prince Abdullah last year for
more rights and opportunities.
From
an Islamic point of view, there are nothing in the Noble Qur’an or
the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) denying women the
right to vote.
Eyes
on Reforms
The
elections are largely seen as part of a drive to introduce reforms,
which Riyadh insists must be tailored to Saudi specifications and not
necessarily follow a Western pattern, according to AFP.
Washington
Wednesday, February 9, described the vote as a “welcome
development,” and hoped that women would be included in the future.
“Obviously,
the United States thinks that full participation in political activity
of the country is something that should occur,” said a State
Department spokesman.
The
vote comes a week after US President George W. Bush issued a rare
rebuke to Saudi Arabia, urging the kingdom to “demonstrate its
leadership in the region by expanding the role of its people in
determining their future.”
However,
many experts saw the polls as an answer not only to outside but also
to domestic thirst for reforms.
“There
are American pressures on the kingdom to embark on more reforms but
there are also domestic demands for reform,” Khaled El-Dakhil, a
Saudi political analyst told the Doha-based Al-Jazeeran news channel.
He
added that Saudis view the polls as the start of larger and broader
reforms, especially in the economic and political fields.
Although
only local monitors are observing the polls, a seven-member delegation
from the European Parliament, including two women, was seen dropping
in on polling stations, having timed a visit to Saudi Arabia at the
invitation of the Shura (consultative) Council to coincide with the
ballot.
“It's
historic,” John Purvis, a Euro MP from Scotland, told AFP.
The
election is “a small step but it's a first step. I think it (the
reform process) will snowball and gain momentum,” said Purvis.
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