Editing Politics of Saudi Arabia (section)

===Municipal elections===
In February 2005, [[2005 Saudi Arabian municipal elections|the first elections in Saudi Arabian history]] were held. The elections for "virtually powerless" municipal councils were for half the seats (half of each council's seats were appointed). Women were not allowed to stand for office or to vote.<ref name=lacey-267
>{{cite book|last=Lacey|first=Robert|title=Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia|url=https://archive.org/details/insidekingdomkin00lace_0|url-access=registration|date=2009|publisher=Viking
|page=[https://archive.org/details/insidekingdomkin00lace_0/page/267 267]
|isbn=978-0670021185|quote=Abdullah was already the first Saudi ruler to have presided over elections. Admittedly the voting, held in the spring of 2005, was only for local, virtually powerless municipal councils – and then for only half the seats on those; women were not allowed to stand for office or to vote. But the male electorate got the change to eat large quantities of mutton for three weeks since Saudi electioneering proved to revolve around lamb and tents ... the candidate held court, inviting voters inside [their tents] and plying them with mountains of rice and whole roasted sheep.
}}</ref>

In [[Riyadh]], the number of registered voters did not exceed 18% of those eligible to vote, representing only 2% of the city's population. There was evidence of much greater interest in the Shia community of the Eastern Province.<ref name="Al-Rasheed 248-250">{{cite book |title=A History of Saudi Arabia |last=Al-Rasheed |first=M. |author-link=Madawi al-Rasheed|year=2010 |isbn=978-0521747547 |pages=248–250|publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> Women will be allowed to vote beginning in 2012, as King Abdullah announced in the opening speech of the new term of the Shura Council.<ref>{{cite web | title=Women in Saudi Arabia to vote and run in elections | website=BBC News | date=2011-09-25 | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-15052030 | access-date=2021-09-26 | archive-date=18 October 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018101520/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-15052030 | url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2005, candidates tended to be local businessmen, activists, and professionals. Although political parties were not permitted, it was possible to identify candidates as having an [[Islamist]] orientation, a liberal agenda, or reliant on tribal status. The Islamist candidates tended to be backed by public figures and the religious establishment and won most of the seats in the Saudi cities such as Riyadh, [[Jeddah]], [[Medina]], [[Tabuk, Saudi Arabia|Tabuk]], and [[Taif]]. Candidates with "Western sympathies or any suspicion of secularism" lost out heavily to "hardline conservatives who were endorsed by the local religious establishment."  This demonstrated to some that rather than being a conservative force holding back the country, the royal family was more progressive than the Saudi population as a whole.<ref name=lacey-268>{{cite book|last=Lacey|first=Robert|title=Inside the Kingdom : Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia|url=https://archive.org/details/insidekingdomkin00lace_0|url-access=registration|date=2009|publisher=Viking
|page=[https://archive.org/details/insidekingdomkin00lace_0/page/268 268]
|isbn=978-0670021185|quote=The results of the voting proved the truth of what Fahd once prophesied about elections – it was usually the religious who won. Candidates with Western sympathies or any suspicion of secularism lost out heavily to hardline conservatives who were endorsed by the local religious establishment. Imams and holy men made their opinions felt through `golden lists` of religiously approved candidates, sent out to voters on their cell phones... The vote also provided statistical backing for the analysis that informed observers had long maintained – that for all their faults, and quite contrary to their stereotypical reputation, the House of Saud provided a minority force pushing for Western secular change in a Kingdom of largely retrograde caution.}}</ref>

In 2007, a Saudi commentator noted that the municipal councils were proving to be powerless. Nevertheless, the elections represented an important step in modernizing the regime.<ref name="Al-Rasheed 248-250"/>

Although male-only municipal elections were [[Saudi Arabian municipal elections, 2011|held again on 29 September 2011]],<ref name="alawsat_details">{{cite news | first=Abeed | last=al-Suhaimy | title=Saudi Arabia announces municipal elections | date=23 March 2011 | publisher=[[Asharq al-Awsat]] | url=http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=24616 | access-date=2 April 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501185625/http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1 | archive-date=1 May 2011 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="bloom_women">{{cite news | first=Donna | last=Abu-Nasr | title=Saudi Women Inspired by Fall of Mubarak Step Up Equality Demand | date=28 March 2011 |publisher=[[Bloomberg L.P.|Bloomberg]] | url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-28/saudi-women-inspired-by-revolt-against-mubarak-go-online-to-seek-equality.html |access-date=2 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110401030633/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-28/saudi-women-inspired-by-revolt-against-mubarak-go-online-to-seek-equality.html |archive-date=1 April 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> Abdullah announced that women will be able to vote and be elected in the [[Saudi Arabian municipal elections, 2015|2015 municipal elections]].<ref name="oman_observer_electionday"/>