Saudi opposition activists asked King Abdullah on Sunday to allow parliamentary elections and to combat mismanagement following devastating floods in the west of the country.
The Saudi Civil and Political Rights Organisation, an opposition group based in the capital Riyadh, said authorities' handling of floods in the port city of Jeddah showed that electing a parliament was the only way to combat mismanagement and supervise officials.
At least 116 people were killed in the second-largest city when floods destroyed many buildings and streets last month. Civil defence forces are still removing debris. "We hope that we can seize this opportunity in this unfortunate crisis to uproot political corruption, the germ that has become an endemic in Saudi Arabia," the group said in a statement.
The US ally and top oil exporter is a monarchy without an elected parliament or political parties. Its courts are run by clerics who apply an austere version of Sunni Muslim Islamic law, while newspapers usually follow the official line.