Word: saudi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Osama Bin Laden win last week's elections in his native Saudi Arabia, the first ever held in the Kingdom? Not quite - but the al-Qaeda leader's sympathizers should be more than satisfied with the results of 38 municipal contests held Thursday, the first round in a series of three such elections around the country. Islamic conservatives outpolled nearly 650 other candidates - including contenders with powerful tribal links and businessmen who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars - for all seven seats up for grabs on the Riyadh city council. They were better organized, emphasizing their technocratic skills while having...
...Last month's election enthusiasm in Iraq didn't prove contagious, with only a quarter of eligible Saudis bothering to sign up for the vote in the greater Riyadh region, the start a three-stage election that will run through April. Nonetheless, argues Saudi commentator Jamal Khashoggi, ?the culture of democracy is being introduced into Saudi Arabia.? Al Ammari, 55, a U.S.-educated food company executive and liberal reformer, agrees. ?This election gave me the chance to raise my voice...
...After gathering with close friends to sing and dance to the warm strumming of an Oud player, Al Ammari watched the bad news on Saudi TV: he lost to an Islamic conservative opponent, part of a sweep of Riyadh's seven seats by the fundamentalists. As Al Ammari saw it going down to the wire, last week's vote was a test of support for Saudi liberals who have long been overwhelmed by conservatives loosely allied with the ruling Al Saud dynasty. A conundrum in President Bush's State of the Union call for democracy in Saudi Arabia, al Ammari...
...Ammari and other budding Saudi politicians had thrown themselves into election campaigns that combined American-style spending with traditional Bedouin hospitality. Their promises included clean government, better services, and less pollution. Al Ammari spent $30,000 from his own pocket, mainly on campaign flyers, with his sister-in-law running his election website. Other candidates parted with hundreds of thousands of dollars, appealing to voters with lavish nightly lamb-and-rice banquets under canvas tents and ubiquitous billboards on Riyadh's modern highways. With political parties banned, the candidates broke roughly into four categories: urbane liberals like al Ammari; Islamic...
...Riqaiah, an elementary school teacher, was disappointed not only by her husband's defeat but her own inability to vote for him. Now, Al Ammari's 19-year-old daughter Farah hopes that she and her mother will be able to make their own history in 2009, the year Saudi officials say women may be given the right of suffrage. ?We have been discussing the election at school,? says Farah, a medical student at King Saud University. ?We have our own ideas, our own hopes. Not only men are capable of doing things. We are trying.? But, as Farah adds...