the seven winning candidates were those supported by the prominent conservative religious scholars among 530 candidates. Five of the six winners in Buraydah, the capital of the very conservative Qaseem province, also gained a similar clerical support. Islamists won all the seats in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina as well. In the eastern regions, several non-Islamist candidates were elected on 3 March 2005. Shiites swept the board in the town of Qatif and won five out of six seats in al-Hasa. However, in the urban centres of the eastern regions such as Dammam, Dhahran and Al Khobar that are inhabited by considerable Shi’ite population Sunni candidates won the seats with the help of the support they secured from fundamentalist clerics. References Saudi Arabia Municipal elections 2005 municipal Municipal elections in Saudi Arabia