DUBAI (Wall Street Journal) —Saudi Arabia announced that it will hold long-delayed municipal elections on April 23, but dashed the hopes of some liberals in the kingdom by saying women wouldn't be allowed to vote.

The previous round of municipal elections in 2005 was the only public poll ever held in the conservative monarchy, where political parties are banned, but the councils have little power and half the seats are appointed by the government.
Subsequent municipal elections scheduled for October 2009 were postponed so the government could look at improvements to the way the polls were run, including the possibility of extending the vote to women.
The world's largest oil exporter has avoided large-scale antigovernment protests since the uprisings began in other Arab countries, although hundreds of Shiites have demonstrated in the country's oil-rich Eastern Province seeking equal treatment and the release of political prisoners.
The ruling Al Saud family has signaled its unease about uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world by sending troops to neighboring Bahrain to help crush a uprising there, and by granting its citizens financial benefits worth tens of billions of dollars. And King Abdullah has rewarded the Al Saud's most influential backers in the clerical establishment for their support by announcing lavish new spending on religious bodies.
However, he has avoided making political concessions to liberals by barring protests, ignoring calls for increased women's rights and speaking harshly about the pro-democracy demonstrations that unseated the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt.
Since acceding to the throne in 2005, King Abdullah has won a reputation as a comparative reformer in Saudi Arabia's conservative political climate, introducing economic liberalization, more press freedoms, more technical education and less gender segregation.