by Ali Khalil
DAMMAM, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia's minority Shiite Muslims turned out in large numbers Thursday to vote in the second round of landmark local polls in the strictly conservative desert kingdom.
Police had to close the gate to one overcrowded polling center in the eastern city of Dammam as men queued up to cast their ballots in an election that marks a first tentative step towards democracy in Saudi Arabia but remains barred to women.
Voters flocked to around 110 polling stations in the Eastern Province in the second round of three-stage elections designed to pick half the members of 178 municipal councils across the country, the first nationwide polls in the oil-rich Gulf state.
The other half will be appointed by the government.
Sheikh Hassan al-Safar, the most prominent Saudi Shiite figure, has urged voters to cast their "valuable" ballots, citing the Iraqi elections in January as an example of the importance of participation in democratic processes.
"The majority of Iraqis... went out to vote despite dangers... Thanks to Allah, we live in a peaceful country, so we should not be apathetic," Safar said recently.
Saudi Shiites, who make up more than 10 percent of the native population of around 17 million, appear to have jumped at the chance offered by the local polls to fight the marginalization they have suffered in the Sunni-dominated kingdom.
The ascendancy of Shiites in Iraq following the January 30 elections has also not been missed on some members of the community here.
The local elections are part of a cautious process of reform in Saudi Arabia, which along with other Arab states has come under US pressure to expand public participation in the political process.
"Today municipal elections... In the future, we hope to vote in parliamentary elections, God willing," Shiite cleric Sheikh Mohammad al-Taieb told AFP outside a polling center in the predominantly Shiite region of Al-Qatif.
The five seats up for grabs in Al-Qatif are expected to go to Shiites.
"Shiites have been marginalized for years... Now Shiites are starting to get their voice heard... We should be heard in this good country," Taieb said as crates of bottled water were being brought to squash the thirst of queuing voters.
In the Shiite-populated Al-Anud district of Dammam, where some 3,200 people have registered to vote in one center, the station filled up quickly, as more than 500 men, some of whom said they came half an hour before polls opened, waited to be allowed in.
It was more than an hour after police closed the gate to the station that they started allowing them in one by one.
"Do not waste the effort of the past three months," leading Shiite cleric Sheikh Hassan al-Nimer told the crowd standing under a scorching sun, as he and other clerics urged patience.
Although some members of the crowd angrily accused organizers of hindering the process to deprive Shiites of their right to vote, Ali al-Bahrani, the campaign leader of a Shiite candidate, said the delay did not seem intentional.
Some 200,000 people have registered to vote in the Eastern Province to elect half the members of municipal councils across the region, where some 800 candidates are running for 58 seats.
Another 115,000 voters are expected to cast their votes in the southwest of the kingdom where more than 1,700 candidates are standing for election in the regions of Najran, Asir, Jazan and Al-Baha.
Officials said results of the second round would be announced on Saturday.
The first round of polls in Riyadh on February 10 saw 73.6 percent of only 140,000 registered voters -- some 30 percent of total eligible voters -- take part.
The third and final round will take place in the western regions of Mecca and Medina as well as the northern regions on April 21. The elections are open to men aged over 21 except military personnel.
03/03/2005 13:18 GMT