All Set for Historic Civic Elections
M. Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Arab NewsRIYADH, 9 February 2005 — Voting in the historic elections for Riyadh municipal council will be held tomorrow. The counting of votes will start immediately after the voting ends and results will be announced late that night or on Friday, an Election Commission spokesman said.
Election fever has gripped Riyadh and its suburbs, where “polling will begin at 8 a.m. and end at 5 p.m.,†said the spokesman, who preferred to remain anonymous.
“The Election Commission will start counting the votes Thursday night after the daylong polling process is completed,†confirmed Dafer Saeed Al-Yami, a candidate contesting the election in District No. 3, who has intensified campaigning since Monday. He has lined up several meetings and in all his meetings he discusses a range of municipal and social issues.
What’s to be said at this point? The first-ever, nation-wide elections in Saudi Arabia start tomorrow. This article gives some of the nuts-and-bolts details about how this first phase, in the Central Region, will be conducted. I expect there will be some awkwardness, some inconsistencies. With no prior experience, mistakes are sure to happen. But I certainly look forward to seeing how this works out.
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February:10:2005 - 01:52
[...] t is now a democracy. I hope that isn’t telling of the future. As he notes, John is more optimistic.
Robert Mayer @ 6:52 pm [...]
February:09:2005 - 11:11
All Set for Historic Civic Elections (Arab News)
Voting in the historic elections for Riyadh municipal council will be held tomorrow. The counting of votes will start immediately after the voting ends and results will be announced late that night or…
February:09:2005 - 12:04
Are Saudi women voting in this election?
February:09:2005 - 14:51
Maggie, no. Women are not taking part in this year’s elections. And they’re not happy about it.
Because of the pressure they–and many men–have put on the government, the Saudi government has promised a) that they will vote in the next election, and b) that the government will appoint women to some of the seats it controls on the city councils. The Majlis Al-Shoura, the Consultative Council that acts in a parliamentary manner, has also heavily hinted that women will be among its membership for the first time, a little later this year.
Not a perfect answer, but not keeping the status quo, either.
February:09:2005 - 16:56
Saudi Arabia is Now A Democracy
My work here is done.
Crown Prince Abdullah explains:
What is the legitimacy of the monarchy based on?
The legitimacy is the Islamic shari’a, Islam and the glorious Quran.
Do you expect
February:09:2005 - 17:34
John/Maggie, I hate to be such a persistent cynic, but here in the US, it doesn’t seem like much progress is being made regarding womens rights in SA. Even incremental progress would be nice, if it were real. The government simply saying/hinting, “Don’t worry, rights for women will be here any day now!” is of little importance without concrete, decisive, and consistent steps in that direction.
A conference was held last June to discuss these issues. Here is an excerpt from a report by MEMRI:
“In mid-June 2004, the King Abd Al-Aziz Center for National Dialogue in Saudi Arabia held its third conference in a series intended “to build and enhance a culture of dialogue in the Saudi society.” The conference focused on the issue of “women’s rights and obligations and the educational correlation” and in its meetings men and women were separated and the deliberations were carried via closed-circuit television, despite the objections of a number of participants. Thirty five men and an equal number of women representing conservative and liberal elements in Saudi society participated in the three-day meetings. During the proceedings, expert studies on social, psychological, educational, political, economic, and religious law (Shari’a) issues were presented. The conference ended in a conservative victory.”
Note that in a conference about women’s rights, women were not even allowed to be in the same room with those who are in positions of advocating for or granting those rights. They interfaced via TV. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
Not surprisingly, those in favor of continuing to opress Saudi women using cultural and religious justifications carried the day.
February:09:2005 - 18:18
Those who remembered to mark their calendars will note that Saudi Arabia’s first ever country-wide municipal elections start in Riyadh today.
February:09:2005 - 23:10
Alan: With respect, I’m not sure just how you picture the way the country of Saudi Arabia works.
There is no official who can, by fiat, change society. The country is not an absolute monarchy, it is, for lack of a better term, a consultative monarchy.
The King–and in this case, the Crown Prince, as the King is incapacitated by a stroke–cannot simply say, “Do it” and have it happen.
Decision making in Saudi Arabia is complicated and the subject of numerous books and theses. No decisions are made, at any level of government, without consultation and concensus.
Small groups in local regions get together and decide what they think about something. These decision move up the chain to higher and higher levels until, ultimately, they reach the King’s office. If there is general popular support for an initiative, it can be put into action.
If there is resistance, then the ruler needs to judge how strong that resistance is and from where it’s coming. If it’s weak, or coming from weak coalitions, then he might ignore it and move forward. If it’s strong, wide spread, or coming from powerful coalitions, he can’t ignore it.
In 1993, the government proposed permitting women to drive. (This was two years after a group of women protesting the no-driving law were arrested.) There was enormous hue and cry from the public and the government immediately backed down.
As I’ve noted in other posts, the government of Saudi Arabia took a very clear lesson from the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1979: If the ruler gets too far ahead of the people, they will bring him down.
We, as westerners, believe that Saudi women do not have sufficient rights. Many Saudi women agree, but certainly not all. The biggest disagreement comes in defining which rights are important. We, in the West, have a pretty broad understanding of rights. Saudis, including Saudi women, do not share that same perception.
If you read the article I link to in this post , you will note Saudi women who did not complain about the physical separation from men during the conference, instead finding it proper. That needs to be explained.
Simply calling them ignorant or benighted doesn’t come near the truth.
I think that men and women are equal in all aspects of the law. That is the Western consensus. It is not the Eastern consensus, however.
The majority of the people of the world believe that men and women have different legal and moral obligations. Are they wrong? On what grounds? Is it because we, in the West, know better?
It could be, but I’d like you to make the case.
If a majority of people don’t agree on something, how do you get them to change their minds? What if, after all your efforts, they still don’t agree? Does that make them wrong, or simply different?
Societies do not change merely because someone says they must. Nor do they change because someone simply says, “My way is better.” Societies have to see the need for change and made the changes from within.