Saudi Women are running the municipal council seats as candidates for the first time in the Kingdom’s history and also be allowed for the first time to vote in a governmental election.
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In line with Saudi Arabia’s gender segregation rules, men and women are casting ballots at separate polling stations. “Saudi women have faced significant obstacles in their fight for their right to vote and run in the municipal council elections, but their participation on December 12 will send a strong signal to Saudi society that women are continuing the long march toward greater participation in public life”, Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for Human Rights Watch, said.
Over 900 women were contesting for seats against about 6,000 men who were competing for places in 284 councils looking after local affairs.
A male voter in the eastern city of Hafr al-Batin said it was hard to know whether to support a woman candidate as men have been unable to meet them or see their faces.
The results of the elections are expected to be announced later on Saturday.
The campaign has been low key, with rules preventing photographs of candidates applied to both men and women.
He said the voting centers have already started the counting of votes.
At the King Salman Social Centre in Riyadh, Shara Al Qahtani, a 50-year-old mother of eight, voted for a male candidate whose name she said she recognised.
“The rulers are man and generally make the decisions so we are not used to women making decisions”, she said. The official Saudi news agency says polling stations are reporting a large turnout, and a smooth voting process. 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.
The campaign has been a struggle however, with some women candidates barred from taking part and others withdrawing under pressure. “I thank God I am living it. I’m not really anxious about the number[s]…the fact that we have gone through this exercise is what really matters”.
But not all women trying to break the mould in the conservative kingdom had such a positive experience.
This change is part of the late King Abdullah’s legacy.
An appeals committee reversed her disqualification just two days before the end of campaigning, Ms Hathloul said on Twitter.
Alsnari said she had hardly slept Friday night.
“If you look back at the history of women (in Islam), there are all those strong women”, she said.
The elections are for almost 300 local councils. But women still face many restrictions, and must get permission from male family members to travel, work or marry. The country is the last in the world to open ballots to women.
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Karen Young, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington DC, predicted the success rate of women in the elections would be “slim to zero”.
