Tuesday, March 29, 2011

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia will hold municipal elections on Sept. 22 as pro-democracy unrest sweeps through the region but voting will not be open to women, the general elections commission said Monday.

Activists for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia said the decision to keep the voting ban in place was “outrageous.”
Registration will begin on April 23 and election results will be announced within 48 hours, the commission said.
Saudi Arabia held its first municipal elections in February 2005 and the second election was delayed in May 2009. Women were not allowed to run as candidates or to vote in the 2005 polls.

“Women will not participate in this session,” Abdul-Rahman al-Dahmash, director of the kingdom’s electoral commission, said at a news conference. “We are not ready for the participation of women in these municipal elections,” he said.
“There is a plan, though not with a definite time, to put in place a framework so that women can participate in upcoming elections,” he added.

Hatoon al-Fassi, a history lecturer at King Saud University in Riyadh said the decision to keep the ban on women was “an outrageous mistake that the kingdom is committing. It’s just repeating the same mistake of 2005.”

“Burying our head in the sand is fruitless,” she said.

The announcement comes after Saudi King Abdullah ordered sweeping increases in government spending on March 18, including $67 billion on housing and funds for the military and religious groups.
However, Saudi activist Wajiha al-Hwaidar Monday appeared to have resigned herself to the “oppression of women” in her country.

“I have grown used to the [attitude of] Saudi officials and women’s oppression. All their decisions are disappointing,” she told AFP, accusing the authorities of being out of touch.
But she said that women in Saudi Arabia were also to blame for their situation because they had failed to establish a strong movement to demand rights from the male-run government.

The September voting is open to males 21 years and older who aren’t serving in the armed forces, according to the statement from the election commission. Members of the armed forces aren’t allowed to run for election.
There are 285 municipal councils in this election, the commission said in the statement. Candidacy registration starts on May 28 and will last for six days, according to the statement. – Bloomberg, AFP