MAKKAH/MADINAH — Undeterred by a noticeably low voter registration, candidates in Makkah and Madinah began to register for the Dec. 12 municipal elections on Sunday.
The registration of candidates in the two holy cities will continue for 17 days while it will begin in other cities of the Kingdom on Aug. 30.
Voter registration in the two holy cities began on Aug. 15, a week ahead of the other regions where it began on Aug. 22 and will continue for 21 days.
Makkah Mayor Osama Al-Bar, who is the chairman of the local elections committee, said the final lists of voters will be announced on Nov. 9 while the final lists of candidates contesting the elections will be announced 10 days later.
So far 699 voters (529 men and 170 women) have registered in Makkah. In Madinah, only 195 men and women have so far registered.
Jeddah, which has 10 constituencies and 108 polling centers including 44 for women, witnessed a dry day on Saturday. The turnout of men and women wishing to register their names as voters was remarkably very low.
According to a member of the local elections committee, some centers in Jeddah did not receive any voter.
“The employees supervising the elections and registering the names were present, but no voter turned up for registration,” he said on condition of anonymity.
The committee attributed the low turnout to school reopening.
The few women voters who came to register their names complained against the conditions making it obligatory for them to present their new national ID and a letter attested by the district mayor to prove that they were residents of the city.
They also complained that voting centers were not clearly identified so they found difficulties in reaching there on time.
Judaie Al-Qahtani, chairman of the executive elections committee, who is also its official spokesman, said the committee has not so far received any request from any NGO to monitor the elections.
“The system permits the NGOs to monitor the elections but so far none of them has approached us,” he said.
Saleh Al-Khathlan, deputy chairman of the National Human Rights Society (NHRS), confirmed that they have not yet submitted a request to monitor the elections, but said the society's board of directors will discuss this issue during the coming days.
