RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi men went to the polls yesterday for the first nationwide election in the Arab world's most conservative monarchy, though the royal family barred women from the experiment.

The election was peaceful, despite fears that rebels might disrupt the vote and embarrass the government on voting day. At war with a homegrown insurgency, the ruling House of Saud is betting that a flicker of democracy — limited to local elections — might win support for the regime and ease public frustration in a country where street protests and political parties are banned.

Voting is a novel experience for all but the oldest men in the 73-year-old Saudi state — some of whom recall sporadic local races in the 1960s — and voters converged on polling centers across the city bearing scraps of paper reminding them of their preferred candidates. They filed in modest numbers into school gymnasiums and city halls, checking off paper ballots for seven local offices and stuffing them into plastic ballot boxes.

"I want them to have clean hands and better ideas," said Agil al-Agil, 48, a businessman voting in the conservative, working-class al-Shifaa district of southern Riyadh. "We don't want someone who is coming (to the race) just for himself."

The vote ended a two-week campaign that saw millions of dollars spent on Bedouin-tent banquets, roadside advertisements and cellphone text messages. The election may not have matched the raw emotion surrounding Iraq's landmark election last week, but the event, nonetheless, marked a rare flash of democracy in the autocratic Middle East. It stirred pride among wealthy, well-educated Saudis whose loyalty to their oft-cited traditional values is increasingly at odds with their craving for a political system that keeps up with much of the world.

Like many others, al-Agil said he appreciated the local races but now expects that elections for higher offices should follow, including balloting for the parliamentlike Shura council that advises the royal family. "Other countries are ready (for elections), why not us?" he said.

On its face, the election was minor; in Riyadh, it would only select members for a municipal council to oversee garbage collection, water treatment and other tasks.

Further rounds of elections are scheduled for the rest of the country in March and April. Many Saudis initially were skeptical about the election, and less than 40 percent of a half-million eligible men in the Riyadh area register.

After casting their ballots, men at several polling sites said they were sorry they could not bring their wives and daughters to the polls. Women earlier expected to be able to run for office and vote, but election officials cut short that idea in October, announcing they could not arrange separate polling places for women that would satisfy strict Saudi standards of gender segregation.

"No, our women are shy. They like to follow their husbands," said Abdullah Oteibi, 42, an oil-company executive. "And most of them stay home during the day, so they are not ready to be voting in an election."