Saudi women allowed to vote, run for elections for first time

RIYADH-A woman won a seat on a Saudi Arabian municipal council for the first time, the government said Sunday, following the first nationwide election open to female voters and candidates.

Although Saudi women still have a number of restrictions put on their daily lives – including driving – the change in the kingdom is seen as a landmark decision.

The candidates were vying for about 2,100 council seats.

Other women hailing from the kingdom’s northernmost areas won, with two elected in Tabuk, and one in al-Jawf.

More than 900 women ran for seats.

“Women here are doctors and engineers – it’s not like women aren’t there”, Lama al-Sulaiman, a candidate in Jeddah, told Al Jazeera.

Women’s participation in the polls was decreed in 2011 by then-king Abdullah.

Turnout for women was around 80 percent in parts of the country, well in excess of the figure for men, according to official data analysed by AFP.

At least four women have won in Saudi Arabia’s historic municipal elections, according to initial reports.

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 all-female team of election volunteers applauded as she dropped her ballot in the box.

Nassima al-Sadah, an activist in the eastern city of Qatif, said the voting process itself took place relatively smoothly, unlike the registration.

However, female voters registered in the same centre went to cast their polls early in the day.

Fawzia Al Yousuf, one of the voters, said that she was keen on casting her ballot.

She was running against seven men and two women, he added.

Saudi women heading to polling stations across the kingdom on December 12, 2015, both as voters and candidates.

While the election is not seen as to immediately advance the status of women in Saudi Arabia – polling booths were segregated Saturday – the country’s women have welcomed the decision. “I voted for candidates based on their views and perspectives, and not on their relationship with me”.

“It’s the right of being a citizen that I concentrate on and I consider this a turning point”, she said. “Her role is at home managing the house and raising a new generation”, he said.