Saudi to Hold Municipal Polls in September

Municipal elections in Saudi Arabia, the only form of public vote in the conservative kingdom, are to be held on September 22, the electoral commission said on its website.

Local dailies had mistakenly reported last month that the elections would start on April 23. But a timetable posted on the website Intekhab clarified that the registration of eligible voters, not voting, would start on that date.

And unlike the landmark local polls which held in three stages in 2005, when male-only voters elected half the members of 178 councils, the forthcoming elections will take place in one day across the kingdom.

Women will still be banned from taking part in the upcoming elections, the head of the electoral commission, Abdulrahman al-Dahmash, said last month.

"We are not ready for the participation of women in these municipal elections," he said.

The government in May 2009 extended the mandate of the councils by two years, postponing a second vote expected to have taken place that year.

The announcement of the polls comes amid protests in several Arab countries demanding democratic reforms, after demonstrations led to the ouster of the long-time presidents in Tunisia and Egypt.

But a call for a mass protest in Riyadh last month fizzled out due to a no-show that authorities considered a testimony of the people's allegiance to the monarchy.

However, Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province, where most of its Shiite minority lives, was the scene of protests last month to show solidarity with protesters in neighboring Shiite-majority Bahrain.