RIYADH, Aug 9 (AFP) - Saudi Arabia announced Monday regulations for its first municipal elections later this year, but did not make clear whether women would be allowed to vote.
Regulations issued by the ministry of municipal affairs stated that all citizens under the age of 21 and military personnel will be barred from voting in the landmark polls scheduled for November onwards.
"Every citizen has the right to vote if (they are) ... over 21 years old, not a military man and have been residing in the constituency for a year before the day of the ballot," said the regulations, carried by the official SPA news agency.
A constitutional law expert told AFP that the wording of the regulations effectively leaves open the possibility that women could vote.
"The basic law in Saudi Arabia uses the masculine form when referring to citizens in general," Abdul Aziz al-Owaisheq said.
SPA said late Wednesday that the first nationwide polls in the kingdom to elect half the members of 178 municipal councils would be held in three stages from November into early 2005.
The other members of the new municipal councils will be named by the government.
The anticipated ballot is part of a drive to introduce limited reforms in the conservative Muslim kingdom, which Riyadh insists must be tailored to Saudi specifications and not necessarily follow a Western pattern.
Saudi leaders promised last October to organise the elections within a year, but the plan had been put in doubt by a campaign of violence by suspected Al-Qaeda sympathizers.
Reform plans were also marred by the arrest in mid-March of about a dozen reformists, three of whom went on trial Monday and were charged with calling for the kingdom to become a constitutional monarchy and questioning the independence of its judicial system.