SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, announced yesterday it would hold elections for municipal councils in what is widely seen as the first concrete political reform in the Gulf Arab state.
The announcement by the cabinet followed increased demands by reformists, intellectuals and academics on de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah to allow wider political participation, elections and freedom of expression in the conservative kingdom.
"The council of ministers decided to widen participation of citizens in running local affairs through elections by activating municipal councils, with half the members of each council being elected," the state news agency SPA said.
"[This decision comes] to implement King Fahd's speech about widening popular participation and confirming the country's progress towards political and administrative reform and reviewing regulations and orders and to monitor performance of government institutions and accountability in all internal affairs," SPA quoted a cabinet statement as saying.
The king pledged in a speech in May to expand reforms following suicide bombings of Western compounds in Riyadh. He said the government would "expand public participation and open up wider horizons for women's employment".
The kingdom, under the dynastic rule of the house of Saud since its foundation seven decades ago, has an appointed advisory council but has never had any elections for public office
Since the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities -- in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis -- Riyadh has come under intense pressure from Washington to implement social and political reform.
Saudi Arabia mounted a robust crackdown on militants since May suicide bombings in Riyadh which killed 35 people, but analysts say wide-ranging reforms are needed to tackle a plethora of domestic issues such as unemployment and falling standards of living.
Liberals, encouraged by the crown prince's call in January for Arab reform, have since made several petitions for an independent judiciary, constitutional reforms, elections to the consultative Shura Council, freedom of expression and the creation of institutions of civil society and economic reform.