Business & Money | Monday 3 August, 2015 5:51 am |

The general elections committee has approved 1,236 poll centers in 284 municipalities and secretariats across the Kingdom, as the first phase of the third municipal elections that will be launched on Aug. 22.

Additionally, 250 spare centers will be opened if the need arises and if the approved centers reach their full capacity of 3,000 voters, local media quoted an official as saying on Sunday. 
The number of poll centers will be increased during this cycle by 511 new centers, as against 752 in the previous elections. This is being necessitated because of the participation of women as candidates and voters. The largest portion of the election centers, that is 424, have been allocated to women. 
Jadee’ Al-Qahtani, chairman of the executive committee and official spokesman of the municipal elections, said the total number of constituencies in the Kingdom is 343. 

The Council of Ministers allocated 10 constituencies for the secretariats of Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Eastern Province and Jeddah. Taif and Al-Ahsa were allocated eight constituencies each and one constituency for the rest of the municipalities and secretariats, the total of which stands at 277. 
Two seats were allocated for each of the five major constituencies, which means the elected members of these councils should be 20, which is two-thirds of the members, and the ministry appoints the remaining 10, taking the number to 30. 
Two seats were also allocated to Taif and Al-Ahsa, which means the number of elected members in each council is 16, and the ministry appoints the remaining eight, taking the total number to 24. 

The second paragraph of Article 10 of the election of municipal council members stipulates that the number of council members should be as follows: 30 members for Riyadh, Madinah, 
Jeddah and Eastern Province; 24 for Taif and Al-Ahsa; 21 for the rest of the secretariats; 18 for category A municipalities; 15 for category B municipalities; 12 for category C municipalities; and nine members for categories D and H municipalities.