First women elected to Saudi local councils

Al-Oteibi’s win was confirmed by Election Commission president Osama al-Bar via the state-run Saudi Press Agency. A woman named Salma al-Rashed has become the first woman to register to vote.

The result, if confirmed, would be a stunning breakthrough in the kingdom since women on Saturday made history by participating in elections for the first time as candidates and voters, Gulf News reports.

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

Female candidates could not directly meet any male voters during their campaigns.

Only 1.48 million Saudis from a population of 20 million registered to vote in the election, including 131,000 women, the widespread apathy partly the product of a poll with no political parties, strict laws on campaigning, and in which only local issues are at play.

Saudi Arabia was the last country in the world to allow only men to vote, and polling stations were segregated for Saturday’s election in what was a historic day.

According to election commission data, almost 1.5 million people aged 18 and over were registered to vote.

However, while women’s suffrage has in many other countries been a transformative moment in the quest for gender equality, its impact in Saudi Arabia is likely to be more limited due to a wider lack of democracy and continued social conservatism.

Nassima al-Sadah, an activist in the eastern city of Qatif, said it didn’t matter whether women voted for their own sex.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia boasts modern infrastructure of highways, skyscrapers and ever-more shopping malls. They require permission from male family members to travel, work or marry.

Ruled by the Al-Saud family of King Salman, Saudi Arabia has no elected legislature and faces intense Western scrutiny of its rights record.

The remaining one-third of seats will be appointed.

“I don’t consider winning (in Saturday’s election) to be the ultimate goal … but it is the right of being a citizen that I concentrate on and I consider this a turning point”, Hatoon Al-Fassi, told AP.