Polling stations opened Saturday throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for voting in municipal elections 3rd session, the first in which women are allowed to vote and run as candidates. As many as 1,486,477 female and male voters will cast votes to choose 6,440 two-sex candidates in the municipal elections which will close at 05:00 p.m. today. Each voter casts one vote only in his electoral center and will not be allowed to vote for other candidates in his college or in the voting stations. A voter will have to show his national card and fill a special voter form to the voting official who will make sure of his identity, check whether he/she is registered in the election register book. Afterwards, the voter follows voting procedure in a top confidential way. Chairman of the elections' Executive Committee Eng. Judai bin Nahar Al-Gahtani, spokesman of the municipal elections, said in a press conference today to announce the kick off of the process throughout the Kingdom that 235 candidates, out of them nine women, were disqualified during the campaigning period which lasted for 12 days and ended last Thursday for having violated the election regulations. He noted that regulations prevent lobbying on tribal or regional bases, citing a penalty starting with disqualification and a SR50,000 fine for he/she who was found breaching the regulation. Turnout for municipal elections is usually expected as low compared to other types of elections, he said, citing that most of the population in Saudi Arabia belong to less than 18 years old category and some categories, like service men, governors, chiefs of centers, tribal leaders, judicial officials are not allowed to cast votes. --More 13:54 LOCAL TIME 10:54 GMT تغريد
