Saudi women win in first open elections

A Saudi woman casts her ballot in an election centre in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, on December 12, 2015.

While women had previously been completely barred from elections, for the municipal election this time, more than 900 women registered as candidates, along with over 5,900 men.

The change to the voting laws came into place by Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah, who announced in 2011 that women would be allowed to participate in the municipal elections at the same time that announced the inclusion of females on an advisory council within the government. “I promise I will represent her by all means”, said Mubarak, one of two women elected in the Eastern region.

One female candidate also won from a village called Madrakah, which is about 190 miles north of Mecca, Islam’s holiest site.

That total could increase by one because Qahtani said a man and a woman got the same number of votes in one district, and the final victor will be determined in the next three days.

Another woman won in Medina, where the Prophet Muhammad’s first mosque was built. Additionally, a woman won in Saudi Arabia’s southern border area of Jizan, another in Asir and two won in al-Ahsa. The female candidates were selected from various cities; many councils are yet to announce their result which may result in more women candidates winning seats.

Minister of municipal and rural affairs and chairman of the general committee for municipal elections Abdullateef Abdulmalik Al-Asheikh said that 702,542 citizens voted during the elections, local daily Saudi Gazette reported. “I thank God I am living it”, Saudi academic and women’s rights campaigner, Hatoon al-Fassi, told BBC reporters in an interview after she had cast her vote. Despite that, nearly 1,000 women were in the running for positions, and more than a 130,000 registered to vote. It remains to be seen whether male-female segregation will prevail in the councils, which have limited say in local government; in the Shura, men and women go into the building through separate entrances and sit separately. The oldest woman in the family was 94 year-old Naela Mohammad Nasief. “The important thing is that you need to support a good person and exercise the right to vote”, she said. “Only in the movies”, the daughter said, referring to the ballot box.