Article 18 of the Saudi Municipalities Law

المادة 18 من نظام البلديات والقرى

Municipal council sessions are confidential, and the council may invite anyone whose presence it finds useful to attend, without a right to vote.

Official text (Arabic)

This article has not been amended since the law was issued.

جلسات المجلس البلدي سرية، وللمجلس أن يدعو لحضور جلسات المجلس أي شخص يرى فائدة في حضوره، دون أن يكون له حق التصويت.

This is the official Arabic wording, the only legally binding version. We do not translate the law itself; the explanation below is ours. Official source: Bureau of Experts at the Council of Ministers

Article 18 explained in plain English

This article sets two rules on attendance at municipal council sessions:

Confidentiality is the rule: municipal council sessions are confidential, so no person from outside the council may attend on their own initiative.
Attendance by invitation: the council may invite anyone whose presence it finds useful, such as a person with expertise in a matter under discussion or a representative of a body concerned. But the attendee has no right to vote; the attendee's role is to inform and take part in the discussion, not to take part in the decision.

Note that inviting is a discretionary power of the council ('the council may invite'), and that the text did not limit who may be invited to any particular capacity, but made the standard that the council finds their presence useful.

This article does not deal with publishing or announcing council decisions; it speaks of the sessions themselves.

It is connected to Article 17, which requires the chairman or a member to leave the session if a case relating to a private interest of theirs is discussed, with the decision taken by secret ballot in their absence. It is followed by Article 19, under which sessions are not valid unless a majority of members attend; a person invited from outside the council is not a member of it.

Practical example

A municipal council in Medina is discussing a project to develop a popular market, and invites an engineer specialized in urban planning to explain the project. Under this article the engineer may attend and give an opinion, but may not vote on the decision.

Translated from our Arabic explanation with machine assistance. For guidance only; it does not replace advice from a lawyer on your situation.

How we write and review content

Administrative Law lawyers: ask a specialist about your case

Describe your situation briefly and we'll suggest a lawyer who specialises in this law