Saudi Arabia to hold landmark polls in November: Source

Saudi Arabia plans to hold its first nationwide elections starting in November, seen as the first concrete political reforms in the country's absolute monarchy, a government source said on Wednesday.

The source from the Municipal Affairs Ministry told Reuters the first stage of the local elections would be held in the capital Riyadh after the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan ends in mid-November.

The elections will elect half of the members of the nearly 180 municipal councils nationwide, while the rest are expected to be appointed by the government.

The conservative Gulf kingdom announced last October it would hold municipal elections -- the first in four decades -- after pressure from the United States and domestic reformers to grant some political participation and freedom of expression.

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and home to Islam's holiest sites, says it will not allow its cautious program of political change to be influenced by outside pressure.

An increase in violence from militants opposed to the monarchy over the last few years has also ratcheted up pressure on Saudi rulers to introduce political reforms.

The source said an electoral roll had been drawn up, without saying whether women -- who are forbidden to drive in Saudi Arabia -- would be allowed to vote or what criteria such as minimum age would be used to determine who can vote.

The United States has encouraged its long-standing ally, the world's biggest oil producer, to speed up change since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks which were carried out mainly by Saudi hijackers. The second stage of the polls will take place in the east and south of the kingdom before the annual haj pilgrimage which begins around mid-January.

The last stage will be held across the rest of the country -- including the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and the Red Sea port city of Jeddah -- after haj.

Saudi Arabia has been under the dynastic rule of the house of Saud since its foundation in the 1930s. Local elections were held in parts of western Hejaz province until the early 1960s.

The source said regulations for the elections were drawn up in cooperation with a visiting United Nations team.

Source: Agencies