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 Sunday.
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Salma bint Hizab al-Oteibi was elected to a council in Mecca, the official SPA news agency reported, citing election commission president Osama al-Bar.
In the western coastal city of Jeddah, one victor was Lama al-Suleiman, a prominent businesswoman and British-trained biochemist. During the campaign female candidates were allowed to speak only to female audiences. Out of 1.35 million men registered, nearly 600,000 cast ballots.
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.
In a landmark move, 17 women were voted into public office during the municipal elections held in Saudi Arabia, which is considered to be an extremely conservative country. It ranked 161st out of 167 countries in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest Democracy Index.
“Saudi women are not allowed to do several things such as driving a prickly issue which has the sorority up in arms”.
Nassima al-Sadah, an activist in the eastern city of Qatif, said it didn’t matter whether women voted for their own sex.
“The participation of women represents an important step forward in Saudi Arabia toward a more inclusive electoral process that will ensure all citizens are represented in a government accountable to all Saudi citizens”, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. The conservative capital of Riyadh saw the most women candidates win, with four elected. They require permission from male family members to travel, work or marry.
Overall turnout in Saturday’s municipal polls throughout the Gulf kingdom was 47.4 per cent, with a total of 702,542 voters, Municipal and Rural Affairs Minister Abdullatif bin Abdulmalik al-Shaikh said.
Saudi officials first proposed allowing women to vote in 2005, according to Human Rights Watch.
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Before he died in January, he appointed 30 women to the country’s top advisory Shura Council.
