Islamists survive bid to oust them from Saudi polls

Jordan Times, April 21, 2005

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Candidates endorsed by Muslim scholars on Wednesday survived an attempt to disqualify them from running in Saudi Arabia's municipal polls as another hopeful vowed to sue the election committee for allegedly “leaking” telephone numbers of registered voters. “We did not find evidence that the seven candidates (backed by clerics) violated election rules,” Omar Khuli, one of three legal experts charged with ruling on election disputes in Jeddah, told AFP on the eve of the third and final round of the landmark ballot.

The seven are running separately in the seven constituencies of the Red Sea city, but they have been dubbed the “golden list” after prominent religious clerics such as Sheikh Safar Hawali “vouched for them” via Internet statements and other channels.

Khuli said his panel rejected a contention by a “large number” of candidates in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia's commercial capital, that the seven had breached rules barring the formation of electoral lists.

“They did not present solid evidence that the seven formed a coalition. Endorsement per se does not constitute a violation,” he said.

“It's good that there is an impartial mechanism for people to lodge complaints. This is healthy,” commented Abdul Rahman Yamani, one of the seven Islamists whose candidacy was challenged by rivals.

Yamani, an industrial and systems engineering graduate from Stanford and Florida universities in the United States, said his name had appeared on six informal “lists” backed by different people, which showed he was effectively not into any coalition.

But he implicitly chided liberals who have been critical of Islamists or complained that clerics are trying to dictate to voters.

“The businessmen and intellectual elite in Jeddah took a negative attitude towards the ballot, because they believe it will not change much. Now they are complaining that religious people came together. They should have been more pro-active themselves,” Yamani told AFP.

The three-stage elections which began in February are meant to fill only half the seats of 178 municipal councils across Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter.

The remaining members will be appointed by the government, but the ballot has been projected as a step in a reform process tailored to the specifications of the ultra-conservative kingdom, home to Islam's holiest sites.

Saudi women, who have to cover from head to toe in public, have been excluded.

A total of 244 seats are up for grabs in Thursday's round, taking in Jeddah, Taef and Islam's holiest cities of Mecca and Medina in the west, and the northern regions of Al Qassim, Hail, Tabuk, Al Jawf and the Northern Frontier.

Seven seats, coveted by around 500 candidates, will be filled by election in the city of Jeddah, while surrounding areas will get their own local councils.

In all, more than 4,600 candidates are courting the votes of some 333,000 Saudi men aged over 21 who have registered to cast their ballots, according to official estimates.

Some 57,000 men have registered in the city of Jeddah, but estimates of their proportion to eligible voters vary from 10 to over 20 per cent.

Another candidate in Jeddah, meanwhile, said he planned to file a lawsuit against the local branch of the election committee on charges that someone in it had “leaked” the names and mobile phone numbers of registered voters.

“This information should be either confidential or available to everyone. As it is, it reached companies which distribute SMS text messages, who then offered to circulate messages for candidates for more than 15,000 dollars,” Musaed Al Khamis told AFP.