RIYADH, Feb 11 (AFP) - Participation during Saudi Arabia's first round of municipal elections Thursday was 82 percent in the areas surrounding the capital, an election official said, providing no figures for Riyadh itself.
"The turnout was 82 percent in all the Riyadh region excluding Riyadh city. Some towns and villages exceeded 92 percent," Sultan al-Bazai, a member of the general commission of municipal elections, told AFP on Friday.
He did not say why figures for the capital were not published.
Concerning the capital, Al-Iqtissadiyah newspaper Friday quoted the mayor, Prince Abdul Aziz bin Ayyaf al-Muqrin, as saying that turnout was strongest in the second district of Al-Nassim, reaching 76 percent.
The highest number of candidates contested from Al-Nassim.
Turnout was lowest in the fourth (Olaya-Suleimaniyah) of seven districts that comprised the capital, at only 58 percent, the mayor said.
Just over 140,000 men out of 470,000 eligible voters registered to cast their ballots in the first of three-phase polls, in which half the members of 178 municipal councils will be elected across the ultra-conservative kingdom.
Women are barred from taking part in the elections, which will take place on March 3 in the Eastern Province and the southwest, and on April 21 in the western regions of Mecca and Medina, as well as the northern regions.
02/11/2005 12:42 GMT - AFP