At least 19 Saudi women have won seats on local municipal councils a day after women voted and ran in elections for the first time in the country’s history, according to initial results released to The Associated Press on Sunday.
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She stood in Saturday’s polls against seven men and two women, the election commission president, Osama al-Bar, said.
Two women were elected in the Ihsaa governorate and one woman won a seat in Tobouk, local reports said.
“The highest number of voters was in early afternoon, and the process was smooth, especially that people seemed to know exactly what to do”, Ahmad Al Murshid, a member of the election committee in King Salman Social Centre, said.
Najla Khaled, a 24-year-old English literature major, described voting “as a huge step for women in Saudi”.
Speaking to Al Jazeera hours before polls opened, several women said they felt excited and positive that women were participating, with the hope that society as a whole would benefit from more diversity in public affairs leadership. “We are everywhere in our country the same as any man”, she said.
Saudi woman Fawzia al-Harbi, a candidate for local municipal council elections, shows her candidate biography at a shopping mall in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 29, 2015. “She just doesn’t see how this vote will affect her daily life”, Rachel said. Saudi women are heading to polling stations across the kingdom on Saturday, both as voters and candidates for the first time in this landmark election.
In the east, Sanna Abdel Latif Hamam and Maasooma Abdel Mohsen al-Rida were elected in Ihsa province, SPA said. Men and women will cast ballots at separate voting centres.
Female candidates also were barred from speaking to male voters and required to segregate campaign offices, the organization said.
The municipal council races across the kingdom also included the first female candidates – more than 950 in total – seen as pioneers by many but also denounced by some hard-line Islamists as unfit for a public role. An additional 1,050 seats were appointed with approval from the king.
But not all women trying to break the mould in the conservative kingdom had such a positive experience.
The female winners include Salma al-Oteibi in the Mecca region, Lama al-Suleiman and Rasha Hufaithi in Jeddah, Hanouf al-Hazimi in Al Jouf province, and Sanaa al-Hammam and Masoumah Abdelreda in the Ahsa region.
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Ruled by the al-Saud family of King Salman, Saudi Arabia has no elected legislature and faces intense Western scrutiny of its rights record. This makes the victory even more significant.
