But the wheels of government grind slowly and, five months down the line, it seems likely that the deadline for municipal elections will be missed. It is understood that Crown Prince Abdullah was advised it would take at least two years to lay the groundwork for municipal elections, although it was eventually announced that Saudi Arabia's first step towards democracy would take place within 12 months. It is beginning to look like an unrealistic target.

'We need a lot of preparation, in terms of defining the municipalities to begin with,' says Saleh al-Malik, who sits on the majlis committee advising on the electoral process. 'There will be 180 municipalities, and every city or town will have a municipal council with between four and 14 council members.'

Besides demarcating the municipalities - a task that will involve dividing the whole of the kingdom into new cantons - there is the huge logistical task of classifying and educating the electorate. 'There is no clause in the regulation to ban women from casting their vote, but you will have to be over 21 to be able to vote,' says Al-Malik. 'There will be a massive campaign in all the mass media so that people know the rules of the game. Once the municipalities are defined, you will have to have lived in that locality for a minimum of one year in order to vote, and also to run [for office]. We are taking Jordan, Bahrain and Lebanon as examples, and some models from the West.'

There are few perfect prototypes for the Saudi experiment, but what these countries have in their favour is a registered electorate, something Saudi Arabia lacks in anything other than the most basic form. The last national census was conducted in 1992, when the population of the kingdom was put at 16.9 million, of which 12.3 million were Saudis. The latest official estimates put the total closer to 22 million.

'There is no registration yet in any of the provinces, but three weeks before the election date there will be an official census,' says Al-Malik. 'If we are lucky we can synchronise and use it as a basis for registration. If there is not enough time we can always stretch it by a month or so.'

Advice

With the deadline approaching fast, the government in early March hired Riyadh-based law firm Abdulaziz Al-Assaf to advise on the process. Al-Assaf's corporate cousin, US firm Squire Sanders, and McKinsey & Company, also of the US, will both take on advisory roles, although neither firm has been signed up directly by the government. Riyadh has understandable qualms about being seen to import American political ideology, and Saudi politicians are the first to say the stateside democratic experience leaves much to be desired.

'In the Shoura we're debating how to fight corruption, but even if you look at New York, at the money leaving the treasury, they estimate that as much as 2-3 per cent of the GDP [gross domestic product] of the city is going into kickbacks,' says majlis finance committee member Saleh Alomair. 'This doesn't justify corruption, but it gives you an indication of the scale of the problems you may have to address.'

American expertise will to some extent be helping to smooth the course of a process that is at least partly influenced by US diplomatic pressure. Given the amount of political capital he has invested in the decision to hold municipal elections, Crown Prince Abdullah has a keen interest in the progress of the preparations. Majlis members say he is in direct contact with the council on an almost daily basis to discuss the subject. But it appears that liberal intentions are likely to be frustrated by practical considerations.

'It will take at least two or three months to tabulate information from a census, so there will have to be a lapse in time,' says a Riyadh-based political analyst. 'The most likely alternative is that the majlis will have to go back to the original royal decree and reinterpret the one-year deadline to mean that the election process starts in one year, not that they take place within one year.'

This would require considerable political finesse on the part of the majlis, at a time when tensions between the 120-strong advisory body and the cabinet are already growing, in line with the expanding powers of the council. Although it holds only advisory powers and - for the time being - is appointed directly by the king, the 11-year-old body is gaining in confidence. Over the last year, members of the council have called for new rights, including the power to impose binding decisions on government. And following the test case of municipal elections, there will be increased external and domestic pressure for the democratic principle to be extended to the majlis itself - possibly as early as 2009, when the council is due to be convened for a new four-year term.

The democratic process carries some inherent contradictions. If in time the council becomes a fully elected body, there are concerns that it could well end up hindering rather than helping the reform process. In Kuwait, the reintroduction of an elected National Assembly more than a decade ago effectively stopped a number of economic and political reform initiatives in their tracks as conservatives and liberals locked horns over each new piece of legislation.

Saudi politicians say that the rapid evolution of the kingdom's main political institutions has enabled draft legislation to be pushed through at an unprecedented rate. But at the same time, the clear directive for reform from the top means that the broader conflicts within government now take place not in the open arena but at the level of fine detail, delaying or at worst preventing implementation of new initiatives. There is already concern about some of the other pieces of legislation in the government's economic reform programme, many of which had an auspicious public launch only to falter in their final stages.

Capital markets

The capital markets law is a case in point. Heralding some of the most far-reaching changes in the financial sector in a generation, the law was passed with fanfare in June last year but has still to be put into practice. 'My understanding was that when it was passed, it was supposed to take effect in six months or so,' says a Riyadh-based banker. 'In its own right, it entails a lot of changes to the banking sector, but I really don't know why it should be so late.'

Under the original time schedule, five members of the new Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) were to be named on 20 November, including its chairman, while the rules governing the operation of the regulatory body were to be published on 25 January, before the new system was due to go live on 25 February. 'The law was passed by the Shoura council, and it should be implemented but it is still not finished, and there are small points that still need government approval,' says Alomair. 'It could come at any moment, but the problem is that the deadline has passed and there is no new deadline now.'

The final go-ahead now rests with the cabinet, which has been locked in debate for nine months over the fine print of the bill, which includes a series of complex by-laws. A new insurance law, originally planned to come into effect in November, is also running behind schedule as work on the by-laws continues.

While the formal role of the majlis in drafting the law is now over, it appears that key decision-makers responsible for executing the new legislation are also being kept in the dark. 'We are still awaiting the appointment of the securities commission,' says Hamad al-Sayari, governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA). 'No, I don't know when that will be, but it could come at any minute. On the insurance law, we are awaiting the issuance of the by-laws, and SAMA and the Ministry of Finance are in negotiations over them.'

And so the days roll by. Change comes slowly to Saudi Arabia, but the ruling family knows it has a lifelong contract with its citizens, and that decisions made lightly today could affect the generations of Saudis to come. Now that the social contract is being rewritten, arguments over the small print will also determine the evolution of the executive and legislative branches of government. It remains to be seen what constraints would be placed on the executive powers of an elected Majlis al-Shoura, if indeed that step were ever taken. And while the division of powers remains unresolved, disputes over the details will continue to represent a broader battle over the central question of reform in Saudi Arabia.