JEDDAH: The municipal council elections committee has said that election monitors will be supervised by the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), despite a statement seemingly to the contrary from the society itself. The general and local committees for municipal elections held a meeting in Jeddah earlier this week to look at procedures for voter and candidate registration, the first part of the process ahead of the actual vote in September this year, in which Chairman of the General Committee, Abdul Rahman Al-Dahmash said that contact is continuing with the NSHR to bring “all election monitors under their authority”. “We are working with them so that all societies that want to take part in monitoring the elections, including the Saudi Journalists Commission, come under their authority,” he said. The remarks come amid confusion over the role of the NSHR in the municipal council elections after it issued a statement declaring that it would have no role in the monitoring process. Al-Dahmash said, however, that the statement was “unclear”, a view refuted by an NSHR official who wished to remain anonymous. “The statement was clear. The NSHR will not act as an overseeing authority, but it will have election observers on the ground as it did in the last elections,” he said. “The NSHR will be ready to hear any complaints related to the elections through its main or branch offices, just as it does any other complaints.” He said the NSHR statement was released for “a number of reasons” and cited “the exclusion of certain sections of society, the lack of development in the jurisdictions of the municipal councils, and the narrow range of their jurisdiction”. In his meeting with the Jeddah local committee on the municipal council elections Al-Dahmash reiterated that women would not be permitted to vote or stand for election due to “procedural aspects and the lack of female staff to run the election process, and other requirements”. “Yes, there are mayoralties and cities that have declared they are prepared and ready for a female vote, but if it is to be decided that women can take part then that participation must be in all cities in the country,” he said. The absence of women in the vote has led to calls for a boycott of the elections on the Internet, but Al-Dahmash believed they would “fall on deaf ears”. “I believe that the public realizes that involvement in the elections is a national responsibility,” he said. As for criticism from the public of the work of municipal councils since the previous and only elections in 2005, he said that the “lack of satisfaction is based on inaccurate information”. “The municipal councils perform many roles, most of them unlikely to be noticed by the public, such as closely following budgets, construction laws, the appropriation of property for new planned residential districts and so on,” he said. Al-Dahmash added that, according to Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs statistics, 70 percent of council decisions were successfully put into effect, while 19 percent are in the process of being carried through.
