Saudi Shiias win Eastern Province historic vote
AL-QATEEF, Saudi Arabia: Shiias have won most seats in the second stage of landmark municipal polls in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, according to preliminary results.
The oil-rich Eastern Province is home to most of Saudi Arabia’s Shiias, estimated at more than 15 percent of the kingdom’s population of 17 million.
The results released Saturday showed the Shiias won five of six seats in the Al-Qateef region. They also secured five of the six seats in Al-Ahsa region, where they are believed to represent around 60 percent of the population.
Observers said the Shiias, long kept down, participated largely in the elections to make their presence felt in the kingdom.
An estimated 200,000 voters cast ballots in the municipal elections for half of the municipal councils’ members. The rest will be appointed.
In the country’s Eastern Province, the mayor of the provincial capital Dammam estimated turnout at between 70 and 75 per cent and said a number of prominent business and community figures had secured seats on the municipal council.
Saudi women and military personnel were banned from participating in the election, kingdom’s first polls in history.
The third and final round of voting will take place in the western regions of Makkah and Medinah, as well as the northern regions, on April 21.
**Saudi vote: Shiias, long kept down, hope to get rights **
AL-QATIF, Saudi Arabia: Saudi Shiias cast their ballots on Thursday in the second stage of unprecedented municipal elections with a surge of enthusiasm among them which has alarmed some extremists.
The Saudi Shiias, who have long complained of discrimination, believe the elections will give them a voice and official channels to communicate grievances in the country.
One candidate, Jaafar Ash-Shayeb, said the US-led war in Iraq and subsequent elections there had helped in “loosening up the situation” for Shiias in Saudi Arabia.
Most Shiia political prisoners have been released, travel bans lifted and exiles allowed to come home. Adhan, or the Calls to Prayer, can now mention Imam Ali (p)'s name. A ban on the Shiia practice of tatbeer, or cutting head with swords, to demonstrate grief over the unjust slaughter of grandson of holy Prophet (p) Al-Imam Al-Hussein (p) also has been lifted. A throng of young men performed this ritual no one can remember seeing here in public - beating their scalps with swords until they drew blood to mirror Al-Imam Al-Hussein (p)'s suffering.
Husseini mourners in this kingdom once marked Ashura in darkened, illegal community centers out of fear of stirring the powerful wrath of the religious establishment.
But this year Ashura fell on the eve of the 10-day campaign for municipal council elections and a bolder mood was readily apparent. Thousands thronged sprawling, sandy lots for hours to watch warriors on horseback re-enact the battlefield decapitation of Al-Imam Al-Hussein (p), in 680.
But Ash-Shayeb and others note these changes have not been formalized and say that without regulations banning discrimination against them, Shiias will still be treated as second-class citizens.
Other restrictions remain: Shiias cannot teach religious studies or hold sensitive government, security, school or hospital positions. Shiia publications are banned. School children are taught Shiias are deviants. There has been no Shiia cabinet minister, and only one Shiia ambassador - to Iran. There are no Shiia mayors or police chiefs, and not one of the 300 Shiia girls’ schools in the Eastern Province has a Shiia principal.
Saudi Shiias believed that the government would at least start to regard them as citizens, especially after Crown Prince Abdullah met nearly two years ago with a group that presented a petition for equal rights, titled “Partners in the Nation.”
Voting was held Thursday in Eastern Province, where the country’s 3 million to 4 million Shiias are concentrated and which contains the country’s richest oil fields but is less developed than other regions, and in also four regions of the south.
In their sermons, Shiia clergymen urged men to vote, saying they should not isolate themselves from others in the nation of 20 million people.
Some Shiia women, barred from voting like all Saudi women, called on mothers, sisters and daughters to encourage male relatives to take advantage of the opportunity for a say in decision-making in this absolute monarchy.
The electoral success of Iraq’s long-suppressed Shiia community across the border added to Saudi Shiias’ enthusiasm.
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