(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Saudi men report to poll stations on Thursday to elect 1,056 councilors for 285 municipal councils across the kingdom.
Around 5,000 candidates are participating in the only elections in the conservative kingdom, said Jadeeh bin Nahar, the spokesman for the electoral commission.
Although King Abdullah announced on Sunday that women can vote or run as candidates in future elections, they will have to wait for the next opportunity in 2015. No reason was offered by the radical Wahhabi-led kingdom for the delay.
Mariam, a 27-year-old resident of Jeddah, described the election process in Saudi Arabia as “a show” organized by the US-backed Saudi regime to portray that there is “democracy” in this country.
"It is a shell and they are trying to make the outside look good while the inside is rotten. They want to keep us thinking that we have a say - so that we don't create an uprising," said Mariam, who declined to disclose her last name.
Only 1.08 million men of 18 million Saudis have registered to cast their votes in Thursday's elections.
The first municipal elections in Saudi Arabia were held in 2005 and only half of the registered men took part in the elections.
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