Mixed turnouts in first week of registration for municipal council elections JEDDAH: The poor turnout for voter registration for the municipal elections during the first week of offices opening led imams in the Eastern Province to focus their Friday sermons on encouraging the public to show greater enthusiasm for the process. They also called upon officials at the Ministry of Municipality and Rural Affairs to produce a final list of election candidates to encourage the public to vote. “A lot of people have still not registered to vote because they don't know who they will be able to vote for,” one imam told Al-Watan Arabic daily. “If they knew who the candidates were, they might be more inclined to vote.” Sheikh Turki Ayedh said he would be telling his congregation in Al-Hofuf that the municipal elections represent the “voice of the people in service-providing authorities”, while Sheikh Ahmad Al-Bou'ali said the elections entailed “clear involvement in the decision-making process”. “They give the public the chance to take part in the administration of municipal services and monitor performance,” he said. “The municipal councils make citizens partners of the municipalities in taking responsibility and in performing duties in the interest of the nation and the public.” Some voting constituencies saw poor turnouts during the first of the four weeks the election offices are open for registration to vote. In Qassim, officials noted very low attendances from young people, but considerably higher interest from the elderly. At the election center in Ayoun Al-Jawa 399 persons registered, including Abid Bin Rahayan Raji Al-Rasheedi, born 1922, and Eid Bin Awwadh Eid Al-Rasheedi, ten years his junior. They were the two oldest persons to register throughout the region.“We are confident in the election process,” they told Okaz/Saudi Gazette. “We think it will have an important part to play in what's needed for the coming years.” An official at another Qassim election center said that the average age of persons registering over the first week was 30, even though all males aged 21 or over are permitted to vote. In the Taif region, election centers have been receiving aspiring voters in waves. At one center in Dhulum, only three persons arrived to sign their names at the end of the week, while in Umm Al-Doum 300 people turned up in only five hours to boost its total number of voters registering in the first week to 650. In Afif, which had only seen 117 persons arrive to register at its election centers throughout the week, the final day before the weekend saw the number jump to 413. A local source explained the turnout by suggesting that persons who intended to run for election had been consulting with local tribal and family gatherings at weddings and other social occasions to gain promises of votes. “Lots of people all turned up at once,” a source said at one election center. “It would appear that enthusiasm for their tribal allegiances had been stoked, and even people in wheelchairs arrived to register their names.” In Jeddah, 3,000 out of an eligible 87,000 registered at election centers during the first week. Abdul Aziz Al-Nahari, spokesman for the municipal elections in Jeddah, said that all the names were new to the register, having not voted in the previous 2005 poll. He described the figure as “good and reasonable”, however. “People have a general last-minute attitude to these things,” Al-Nahari told Okaz/Saudi Gazette, noting that there are still 21 days left. “Also, people who registered last time don't have to register again unless they've moved residence to another voting constituency.” A group of young Saudis described the elections as an “important process” but lamented what they said was a lack of attention from the media, in particular local satellite television channels and the radio. “They should be doing more to remind the public about dates for the elections and the locations of election centers, as well as the process involved,” they said. “Although the previous elections might not have brought the results that everyone wanted that doesn't mean we should give up, but instead we should make the most of the positives that came out of it and work to address the negatives to try and create effective, elected municipal councils giving a voice to those who deserve it.”
