Business & Money | Sunday 31 May, 2015 9:29 am |

In a few weeks preparations will begin for elections for municipal councils
which will be held in August.

Despite criticisms of the previous two elections, people are hopeful. Changes in legislation have increased the number of elected candidates to two-thirds.
The voting age has been lowered to 18 and, for the first time, women will be allowed to vote in the elections.
Elections are not something new in the Kingdom. The first was held during the reign of the late King Abdul Aziz. They were held in 1924 when he entered Makkah and announced the establishment of a people’s council. Following that, municipal councils were established in Jeddah, Madinah, Al-Hasa and Riyadh.

The first electoral law in the Kingdom was in 1938 and included polls for local councils. In 1977 a new law was passed to govern municipal elections.
The basis of municipal elections has been to get popular participation at local levels and, through voting, to get people interested in becoming candidates who take part in the local decision-making process.
Through recent legislative changes, the membership of certain municipal councils has been raised to 30.

The councils of Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah and the Eastern Province each have 30 members. Taif and Al-Hasa have 24 members while Asir, Hail, Tabuk, Jazan, Baha, Najran, Jouf and the Northern Border have 24 members for each council.
Still others, such as Khamis Mushayt, Hafr Al-Batin, Qatif, Al-Kharj, Aneeza and Yanbu have 18 members.

Each council will hold its first session 15 days after the council names its members and will be led for two years by the oldest member.
There are 285 councils in the Kingdom. Article 45 of the new law guarantees the independence of each council through budgets within the general budget of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs.