Women snap photos as they arrive at their polling station in Jiddah to vote in municipal elections.
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“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 2 previous rounds of voting for the councils, in 2005 & 2011, have been open to men exclusively.
The most women candidates win was in the capital Riyadh. Saudi Arabia has no elected parliament.
Early results Sunday show Salma bint Hizab al-Oteibi is the first confirmed victory for a woman running for a municipal council seat, beating out seven men and two other women for the position in Madrakah, about 150 kilometers north of Mecca.
“It’s very hard because it’s the first time-and we are competing against men”, Rasha Hefzi, a social worker who won a seat representing Jeddah, said before election results were announced.
Women first served as municipal councilors through appointments from the King.
Saudi website sabq.org is reporting 20 women have been elected to councils around the country.
The Islamist monarchy, where woman are banned from driving and must cover themselves from head to toe in public, was the last country in the world where only men were allowed to vote.
The elections are for almost 300 local councils. The article said residents were also frustrated with the lack of parks in the village.
Actual definite figures of winning female candidates aren’t final as no official statements concerning it have yet been made. The councils these women will serve on do not have legislative powers, but advise authorities and help oversee local budgets.
It was the first time Saudi Arabian women were allowed to vote and to be candidates in elections. Nor were they allowed to participate in debates on television.
More than 80 percent of the 130,000 female registered voters cast ballots, according to The Associated Press.
Among 1.35 million registered Saudi male voters, about 44 per cent turned out, Mr Omar said. The oldest woman in the family was 94-year-old Naela Mohammad Nasief.
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What this election means for the broader women’s rights movement in Saudi Arabia. Another said she would never let go of the right finally given to them, even with some conservative rules still imposed upon them. Women posed for pictures behind the ballot box and yelled “Mabrook”, Arabic for congratulations, to one another as they exited.
