Given the importance of the occasion - Saudi Arabia's first election in more than four decades - there was bound to be some controversy. Media reporting restrictions were relaxed. Candidates were given unprecedented access to the electorate, via billboard advertisements, newspapers and political meetings. At the same time, the mobile phone came into its own as a tool of democracy, although there were mixed reports about the legality and even the accuracy of many of the text messages. It was one such message that stated baldly that at least five of the seven successful candidates had the public backing of local clerics.

Given the habit of many candidates of advertising their religious credentials, the distinction between Islamists and non-Islamists is somewhat blurred. Only one of the successful candidates, Sheikh Abdallah al-Sweilem, an engineer and real estate developer, also has a reputation as a preacher. The authorities, too, showed concerns about the degree to which the political debate had polarised around religion. 'I strongly object to the media focusing on this issue,' Interior Minister Prince Nayef told local reporters on 14 February. 'We don't accept such classifications, because we are all Muslims and citizens. The elections were held in the right manner. It has been proved that [the winners] followed the law and did not create any problem.'

The next stages of the poll will test the claim of a shift to Islamist technocrats at the expense of more liberal candidates. Seven seats were made available on Riyadh's 14-member municipal council, and across the nation, half of the seats on the kingdom's 178 town councils are on offer. The municipal elections will be held in three stages, the first of which was carried out in the greater Riyadh area. Voters in the east and southwest of the country will go to the polls on 3 March, while the last round, in the north, will take place on 21 April.

'I think you can expect the results in the countryside, particularly in more remote areas, to reflect a shift to the Islamists, even though most of them have campaign tickets which reflect vested interests as businessmen and developers,' says a US-based analyst. 'Their impact won't be felt particularly strongly - most of the big decisions regarding zoning and permits are made by the government, but they may gather strength as a lobby group. But the real impact is symbolic.'

Momentum

Voter registration was poor in many areas, with only a quarter of those eligible signing up. But local observers say the level of interest in the election has gathered momentum since the register closed - of those listed on the electoral roll in greater Riyadh, about 70 per cent turned out to vote on 10 February. It even feels, say some, like a return to the 'Riyadh spring' - the brief period of unprecedented public debate that ended in 2003 with the firing of Jamal Khashoggi, editor of the daily Al-Watan, after he criticised local clerics for failing to condemn a series of bomb attacks on Western targets (see Media, pages 44-46).

The elections have also raised public interest in the higher levels of government, and in particular the Majlis al-Shoura (consultative council), which is due to be reshuffled later this year. Second Deputy Prime Minister and Defence & Aviation Minister Prince Sultan