Saudi Arabia Elects Female Politicians in Historic Vote

To Saudi Arabia, now, where a woman has won a seat on a municipal council for the first time in the country’s history.

Before the announcement that women would finally take part in elections this year, Saudi Arabia’s most senior religious figure, the Grand Mufti, said women’s involvement in politics is like “opening the door to evil”.

It has been a season for firsts in Saudi Arabia: During the run-up to the country’s third-ever elections, the absolute monarchy made a decision to to give women the vote and to also allow them the right to seek positions on the country’s municipal councils.

Official Saudi media have been promoting the election and the participation of women, which was ordered by the late King Abdullah in 2011 as part of the response to Arab spring unrest across the region. Female candidates could not directly meet any male voters during their campaigns.

Nassima al-Sadah, an activist in Qatif, said the voting process was relatively smooth, unlike the registration.

Speaking at a panel held by the Women and Democracy Association (KADEM) on Saturday, Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Antalya deputy Gökcen Özdoğan Enç claimed that there’s something wrong even though women were granted the right to vote in Turkey in 1934.

Electioneering has been low key, with rules preventing photographs of candidates applied to both men and women.

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 political system remains closed and dominated by the royal family, and no one expects that average Saudis soon will play a role in choosing the officials – all men – who run their country’s economic, military and foreign affairs. Only 130,000 women were registered to vote, compared with ten times as many men. 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 today.

A woman casts her ballot in Jeddah. 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.

Though there are no quotas for female council members, an additional 1,050 seats are appointed with approval by the king who could use his powers to ensure more women are represented.

Men and women vote separately in the kingdom, where the sexes are strictly segregated.

At least one part of the country reported a female turnout exceeding 80 percent, according to official data.