In 2011, the now-deceased King Abdullah announced that women would be allowed to nominate candidates in the next municipal election, an arrangement that under the Saudi voting system also amounted to giving women the ability to vote.
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Thousands of Saudi women headed to polling stations across the Middle Eastern nation on Saturday in only the third-ever public elections in the nation-and the first in which women were able to cast their votes.
The nominees were vying seats. council for about 2,100 Are appointed seats an added 1,050 with approval from King Salman, who could use his powers to appoint female candidates who do not win outright.
The Municipal councils are the only government body in which Saudi Arabian citizens can elect representatives, so the vote is widely seen as a small but significant opening for women to play a more equal role in society.
“The rulers are man and generally make the decisions so we are not used to women making decisions”, she said.
The election commission is expected to announce the final official results of the polls later on Sunday.
“I believe women want more parks, libraries for their children, health and fitness facilities for women”.
The new session of the council will begin on January 3, 2016 and will last for four years, Arab News quoted spokesman of the General Committee for Municipal Elections Judea Bin Nahar Al-Qahtani as saying.
A Saudi woman casts her ballot in a polling station in Jeddah on Saturday. He also appointed women to the country’s 150-member Consultative Council and opened more areas of the labor market to them as part of the royal family’s gradual ease of restrictions on the role of women in society and the economy.
“As a woman, I need some services, some needs in my neighbourhood, like nurseries for longer time”.
A total of 978 women registered as candidates, alongside 5,938 men.
Candidate Latifa Al-Bazei, a 53-year-old public school principal, said her participation in the race felt like a continuation of her service to the community.
In the mountainous Baha region, in the kingdom’s southwest, 946 women voted, according to the local election commission cited by SPA.
Al Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from Riyadh after the polls closed, described the elections as “momentous”. She says that during her time there, she has heard a wide range of opinions.
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Behind her, groups of women took selfies and posted images on social media. The two previous rounds of voting for the councils, in 2005 and 2011, were open to men only. The authorities gave no reason for not allowing them to participate, but many had previously been politically active, including advocates for women’s driving and the advancement of the Shi’ite Muslim minority.
