The count of registered voters is similarly disproportionate – 1,360,000 men versus just 131,000 women – and is only a small fraction of Saudi Arabia’s 20-million population.
Advertisement
And the country’s polling stations, like all its public places, are gender-segregated; only 424 of the 1,263 polling stations are reserved for women.
A slow expansion of women’s rights began under the late king Abdullah, Salman’s predecessor who died in January.
As for candidates, there are 978 women and 5,938 men running for 2,100 seats.
Women aren’t allowed to directly address male voters at campaign rallies, instead relying on a male representative to stump for them, or make their pitch from behind a screen, meaning most are using social media to get their message across.
Elections themselves are a rare thing in the Saudi kingdom – Saturday will be only the third time in history that Saudis have gone to the polls.
Historic… While Saudi women can now vote they still can’t drive a vehicle.
Human Rights Watch welcomed the ballot as a move towards greater political participation for women. Some of them, in fact confessed that they are not contesting to win, but for the sheer spirit of participating.
More than 900 women are running for seats on municipal councils, Saudi Arabia’s only elected public chambers.
Najla Khaled, a 24 year-old English literature major, described voting “as a huge step for women in Saudi”.
As a result, women account for less than 10 percent of registered voters and few, if any, female candidates are expected to be elected when results are announced Sunday.
As many as 6,917 candidates are running in the election, including 979 females. Abdullah Al-Maiteb made his way into a polling station in the capital Riyadh Saturday morning, expressing a widely held sentiment about why women shouldn’t be on the ballot. “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.
As she spoke, a military transport plane flew low overhead from the nearby airbase, a reminder of the momentous policies from war in Yemen to management of plunging oil prices on which Saudi citizens – men and women – still have no formal say.
Municipal council seats across Saudi Arabia are up for grabs.
“You have to work extra hard to understand” a female candidate, he said, while he could share food or coffee offered by male contenders.
“We are looking at it as an opportunity to exercise our right and to push for more”, she added. They would need their help to reach the polling booth.
Heavy resistance remains in Saudi Arabia’s conservative circles against giving women more rights, which is perceived as crippling westernization by critics.
Advertisement
The number of women in the Saudi workforce also has been increasing, from 23,000 in 2004 to more than 400,000 in 2015, according to the government. The kingdom’s first municipal ballot was in 2005, for men only.
