Complaints Abound Over ‘Golden List’ Victories
Hassan Adawi & Maha Al-Nowaisser, Arab News

JEDDAH, 29 April 2005 — More than 70 candidates from the recent municipal elections are contesting the victories of the seven candidates whose names appeared on the so-called “golden list.”

The complaints were filed with the Elections Grievances Committee, either in person or by legal brief. All candidates agreed on the same format for their appeals, which contend the “golden list” demonstrates prior organization and grouping in defiance of regulations. The defeated candidates said they have enough evidence against the victors to prove their allegations.

Several notable defeated candidates attended the meeting, including Saleem ibn Hindi Al-Harbi from the Sixth Precinct; Talal Al-Johani, Lafee Al-Balowi and Ali Al-Ramee in the Third Precinct; Dr. Abdul Malik Al-Janaidi in the Fourth Precinct; Abdul Aziz ibn Ghabisha in the Seventh Precinct and Osama Yamani in the Second Precinct and Esaam Ba Ghafaar in the Fourth Precinct.

Al-Watan reported that the Grievances Committee would receive substantial evidence focusing on six separate areas.

— A statement attributed to committee member Dr. Omar Al-Khouly about the “golden list” that appeared on the Internet sites and mobile messages indicating that the committee will remove those names when they become confident of the validity of this list and the lineup that it contained.

— An objection that candidates who were managers of districts in Jeddah province should have been excluded as district chiefs had been because their positions could be used to influence constituent voters.

— Articles in two Jeddah province magazines that predicted shoo-in victories for “golden list” candidates, which may have unduly influenced voters.

— Grievance Committee delays in condemning the “golden list” until the day before balloting, which precluded other candidates from amassing more evidence to support their allegations.

— A statement by Seventh Precinct victor Dr. Abdul Rahman Yamani to French media that a coalition existed between victorious candidates.

— Statements by government-employed scientists and senators chastening some of the candidates clearly prohibited by election regulations.

Jeddah province recognized two groups of plaintiffs studying the reasons of their losses. They briefed five lawyers who will present the allegations, The lawyers made clear this is not aimed at the victors personally, but rather the means by which the victories were achieved.

“This grouping up is a clear defiance to the second article in the second section of municipal regulations,” said plaintiff Musaid Al-Khamees, a defeated candidate. “In fact, before the announcement of results on Saturday morning, one of them was quoted in Okaz newspaper as saying ‘The news hasn’t confirmed it yet, but the signs say that there is unanimous victory for the gold.’ There can’t be anything more clear than that statement to confirm that there was prior planning/grouping in compiling that list, which was distributed via communication devices with the election results confirming it.”

Some assert that the violation is blatant.

“Taking part in a unified list is exactly the whole point of the regulations against gathering and collaborating,” said Ali Al-Oqla, an attorney and consultant. “In fact, the participation of just two candidates is prohibited, so what do you say to the participation of seven candidates — one from each of the seven regions?”

Grievances Committee Manager Ahmad Al-Khilawi said all grievances procedures should be completed regarding the election results. Yesterday was the last day to file election grievances. The committee has five days to decide on the complaints after their filing.

The first nation-wide elections in Saudi Arabia’s history are now over. Municipal councils have been elected across the country as the result of a three-stage election that was conducted over several months in three different regions. The elections were certainly limited in their scope: the only offices up for election were to municipal councils, half the seats on the councils will be appointed by the government, only men could vote. That’s not ideal, but it doesn’t make the elections without value, as I’ll explain below.

One of the glaring things revealed about the elections was the low voter turnout. Some said it was the result of cynicism–what can a single voter do to change a national system? Others were completely clueless about what the elections meant or how it was conducted.

The latter issue is correctable–self-correctable over time, as voters learn what’s at stake. The former view, though, is more difficult to change. Citizens will have to understand that real power–even if in very narrow circumstances–is being put in their hands. Those whom they elect will have to produce or face losing in the next elections. Citizens now do have authority and responsibility for electing those individuals who will best meet their needs.

The government issued extensive rules about how campaigning could be carried out. But as is usually the case when one does something for the first time, there were flaws in the system. For instance, it was not clear just what constituted “forming a slate of candidates”–which was forbidden. Could a third-party issue a list of preferred candidates and encourage voters to elect them all together? Does this constitute a coalition?

The grouping of certain candidates in various cities, done by people with some sort of religious credentials, if only popular respect, drew criticism in those cities. The critics believed candidates had unlawfully aggregated themselves. So far, in both the Central and Eastern regions, official review of the complaints has led to their denial. The elections in Jeddah–just completed–have drawn similar complaints, though the aggregation seems to be more blatant there. The complaints are now before the Grievance Committee for resolution.

These elections are important, limited though they may be, for several reasons. First, if Saudi Arabia is to develop a representative government–something which the Crown Prince’s current government supports–citizens must learn how it works. Attempts by other Gulf States–Bahrain and Kuwait–in the 1960s led to parliaments that did not well represent the people who elected them, were radical in their activities, and evidenced no long-term view for their countries. Those parliaments were shut down six or seven years after first being elected.

In both of those countries, there are now new parliaments that are performing professionally. The Kuwaiti parliament, for instance, enfranchised female voters earlier this year, after years in which women had been denied voting rights. Bahrain had taken this step a few years ago.

By starting small and working up to the national arena, the Saudi government intends for voters to become educated in both the rights and responsibilities of self-governance. This is reasonable, even if it isn’t dramatic. Unlike Iraq and Lebanon–both of which saw truly dramatic democratic action this year–Saudi Arabia has no history of representative government, however flawed.

The cultural pattern had been–and largely continues to be–one based on a patron-client relationship between the government and the people. People accept what the government says is good and shuns that which is bad. Individual, critical thinking was something most people did not engage in very much, nor was it taught in the schools. A lot of learning needs to take place before the average Saudi can responsibly exercise political power.

This learning process will be comprehensive, taking in social values, cultural value, religious interpretations, economics. It’s a full curriculum for anyone. With pressures being put on the people and government–from the US government, from Saudi reformers, from Islamist terrorist organizations–the Saudis are being asked to do a crash course in very foreign matters. There’s no assurance that the results will be in line with US desires, nor the desires of any particular group of reformers, liberal or conservative. What is sure, though, is that if the Saudis get a chance to step into representative government and not have to take a blind leap, the true desires of the populace can be turned into their own version of democracy.