Breaking News in Saudi Arabia!
In late May, The Council of Ministers announced that the govenrment had extended the mandate in Saudi Arabia in order to have more time to make changes to the current law in Saudi. The local human-rights group and democracy activists were very angry and hostile due to this announcement. The activists (a group of 77 people) wrote a letter to the royal family stating that they want someone outside of the royal family to be appointed as prime minister. The royal family took this letter as a threat and has opposed the statement of the activists strongly. However, they did agree that elections were very important, but they believe that the voters don't see that anyone other than the most likely appointed al-Saud is a good representation for the rights of the people. Basically, the royal family has no interest in sharing any power outside their bloodline.
The history behind Saudi Arabias elections start in 2005 where only men were allowed to vote for atleast 50% of the representatives and 178 municipal councils (the rest were appointed). The legistative branch does not have as much power as it should have, another reason why the elections were set to be delayed. All they do is propose laws and all that happens to them is get put on the side because they don't have the power to enforce them. During this time, no word of woman being allowed to vote when the election comes back has been approved.
Sources: "Saudis' Local Elections Delayed for Two Years." New York Times. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/saudiarabia/index.html. Accessed June 4, 2009
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