Saudi women vote at a polling center during the country’s municipal elections in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2015.
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State-affiliated websites and independent news agencies indicate Saudi Arabians may have elected as many as 17 women, but no final tally has been announced. At the polling stations men and women voted separately.
Saudi women running for office faced several difficulties because of the country’s strict laws, which forbid female candidates to address male candidates. “And if women’s photos are not allowed, it would only be right, fair and equal to ban photos of all candidates”, Jadie al-Qahtani, the head of the election’s executive committee, said.
The historic poll for 3,159 seats at 284 municipal councils across the Kingdom concluded peacefully on Saturday amid reports of moderate voter turnout, great enthusiasm, festive mood and high security.
The female candidates were elected to three councils – two in Ihsaa governorate and one each in Tobouk and Makkah – as votes were still being counted on Sunday, Al Jazeera reported. In neighboring Asir, turnout was about 79 percent for women and 52 percent for men. Voter registration was also challenged by bureaucratic hurdles, inexperience with the process, and the fact that women are not allowed to drive, which restricted their ability to both register to vote and run as candidates, Reuters reported.
Before Abdullah announced women would take part in this year’s elections, the country’s Grand Mufti, its most senior religious figure, described women’s involvement in politics as “opening the door to evil”. “Even if men take all the seats, I feel we still won”, said Munifa, a nurse who lives outside Hafr al-Batin city in the kingdom’s northeast, where camels and sheep awaited slaughter at a celebration to follow declaration of the winners. But if they want to cast a vote, they’ll have to catch a ride: the kingdom still forbids women from driving.
Lama al-Sulaiman, a prominent British-educated biochemist and vice-president of the Jeddah chamber of commerce, also won in Jeddah, alongside 10 male candidates. This includes about 119,000 women, out of a total native Saudi population of nearly 21mn. But with 2,106 seats up for election, the 13 women will comprise less than one per cent of Saudi Arabia’s elected council membership.
Many female candidates used social media to help their cause, but a handful of others, including women’s rights activists, were disqualified from campaigning.
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Rasha Alturki said she cried as she cast her ballot.
