Saudi- Tering of land deeds rant in run up to elections

(MENAFN- Arab News) JEDDAH: A black market has emerged among voters to sell leases to overcome the residence condition to be able to participate in the Dec. 12 municipal elections in the Kingdom.
A number of voter registration centers mayors of neighborhoods and the municipal elections general commission monitored forged leases in an attempt to overcome the proof of residence condition and register in neighborhoods other than theirs.
In a step to prevent tampering and registering voters in more than one constituency the municipal election general secretariat stressed the importance of verifying the place of residence by stipulating that an ownership deed should be accompanied by the voter not a lease.
Abdul Aziz Al-Jawaizi chairman of the 60th committee in the seventh constituency which takes Al-Mither branch municipality as its headquarters said the municipal election general secretariat stressed the importance of checking the voters' place of residence when he is registering in the neighborhood where the constituency is to prevent the registration of anyone who doesn't reside there. Proof should be obtained by presenting an ownership deed or a document signed and stamped by the mayor of the neighborhood.
He added some mayors discovered tampering of leases after they collected large numbers of them but this has been faced by coordinating with the municipal elections general commission and mayors. Upon entering the voting halls' registration facility voters should go to the information center on the electronic website to make sure they aren't previously registered in the data base.
The municipal election's executive committee in its third session defined a number of conditions for registering voters.