Saudi Arabia is not yet ready to have an elected parliament because voters may pick illiterate and unqualified candidates, Defence Minister Prince Sultan said in remarks broadcast on Monday.
Prince Sultan, the third most senior member of the royal family after King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, was responding to a question on whether Riyadh could hold elections for its 120-strong consultative Shura Council, now hand-picked by the king and with a largely advisory role.
"No, because if there were elections to the Shura Council then people would emerge who cannot read or write but who have leaders and people backing them without debate," the prince said in remarks broadcast on Saudi state television.
Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, has launched a cautious programme of political reform and promised municipal elections later this year. Reformists hope they will be the first step to electing the Shura Council.
King Fahd last year also granted a greater legislative role to the Council as Riyadh presses ahead with reforms.
Prince Sultan said the existing system of appointment ensured that Council members were chosen who could best serve Saudi national interests. "If time comes when elections are suitable and the Saudi people believe there is a need for them, then we are servants of the Saudi people," the prince added.
The United States is eager to promote reform in the Middle East and has encouraged its long-standing ally, the world's biggest oil producer, to speed up change since the September 11 attacks, which were carried out by mostly Saudi hijackers.
Washington believes lack of democracy in Arab states has helped fuel Islamic militancy. Last week it criticised the arrest of several activists in Saudi Arabia as a step backwards.
Supporters of the detainees, who were rounded up after calling for a constitutional monarchy and criticising a state-approved human rights organisation, say seven out of 13 have been released.
Prince Sultan said they had "rebelled against their fathers and their country" and said they could not expect support from the new human rights body.
"I urge you not to think that the national human rights association was founded to assist offenders," he said.
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