ASIR/TABUK/BISHA: The municipality of Al-Mujarada has launched its publicity campaign to encourage the public to register and vote in the municipal council elections which will take place later this year. The campaign, which involves advertisements and leaflets and a reminder to aspiring councilors to register their candidacy, urges the public to “take part in the decision-making process”. The election committee has also reminded voters in the previous election six years ago that they do not need to register again unless they have moved residence to a different electoral constituency. Voter registration, it said, will be open five hours a day for 27 days from April 21. In Tabuk, the election committee is set to train 150 persons to work at the region's 25 polling stations where they will oversee the registration process and ensure that all procedures are properly followed. An official from the supervisory committee said two meetings have been held to prepare for voter registration at the 25 centers, with the process set to begin on April 23 and will remain open for one month. The mayoralty in Asir, meanwhile, has selected five polling stations for Bisha, all at local schools. Muhammad Aal Mushout, chief coordinator of municipal elections in Bisha, said that voters will be informed of procedures via SMS mobile telephone messages. “They will receive short messages informing them of the phases of voting procedures and the precise locations of the five polling stations,” he said.
