This election will continue until Thursday, 28 candidates are going to compete.
More than 48,000 male and female voters begin voting Sunday in Asharqia Chamber elections for its 18th cycle.
The elections of the members of the Board of Directors of Asharqia Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the Eighteenth cycle (1439H 1443H) shall begin on Sunday 28 January 2018. The voting shall continue until Thursday, February 1, 2018, with a total of 48015 voters.The numbers of female votes, including 5763 votes, are equivalent to 12% of the proportion of voters. 28 candidates will be competing for the election; 19 of them fall under the category of traders and the remaining 9 in the category of manufacturers.
The election supervision committee has set a polling date for each of the following provinces: Khafji, Nairiya and Qatif. The voting will start from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm in Granada Hall in Khafji and Al Yamamah Hotel in Nairiya, while the voting will continue till 7:00 pm in King Abdullah Hall in Qatif.
Moreover, voters will go to polling stations in Abqaiq (Al Dana Event Hall), Jubail Industrial (Al Andalus Hall), and Ras Tanura (Rahima Events) on Monday 29th January. Although, voting will begin in Dammam from Tuesday January 30th to Thursday February 1st in Dhahran Exhibition Center (Expo) on Dammam Road - Al Khobar Coast.
The elections of this session of Asharqia Chamber are more momentum than the previous cycles of elections, both in terms of the number of voters or candidates or in terms of groups of predominantly young people. Therefore, this indicates that the elections will witness a strong presence and strong competition due to the large role of the new amendments to the electoral system, as it opened the way for managers of institutions to elect.
The polling stations will contain designated areas where voters will be able to identify closely the candidates from the categories of merchants and manufacturers and the programs they provide. Also, there are other areas to examine the subscriptions and ensure that the voter's establishment is on the voters list, as well as areas for checking the validity of the commercial registry of each voter. At the end, after the voter receives the magnetic card, he/she will be transferred to the voting area, where the voter will choose four candidates with a maximum of two categories of merchants and two manufacturers through using his/her magnetic card.
The Electoral Supervisory Committee stipulated that the voter must be registered in the Commercial Register and in the Chamber. The voters' registers must be in the Chamber prior to 6/9/1438 H, their records shall be valid, and their contributions shall be paid for the year 2017 before June 1st, of the same year, as well as their contributions valid for the year 2018.
It is noteworthy that the Committee supervising the elections had carried out a practical experience before the start of the ballot, during which the candidates explained how to cast voters through electronic voting in order to avoid the mistakes that may occur, especially as the ballot will be approved immediately after pressing the vote confirmation icon. The committee also facilitated the selection process among the candidates; the traders and manufacturers' candidates will be gathered on one page before the voters to choose between them easily.
