Saudi women go to polls in landmark election

Rabat -Saudi Arabia’s municipal elections began on Saturday morning with worldwide voices hailing the country’s unprecedented voting, in which women can run for elections and cast a ballot for the first time in the history of the Kingdom.

Municipal elections began in Saudi Arabia on Saturday in which women are participating as voters and candidates for the first time. More than 130,000 women have registered to vote compared to 1.35 million men.

Such is the low public expectation for any rapid changes despite the election, which was set in motion by the late King Abdullah as part of reforms that included adding women to the Shura Council that advises the kingdom’s rulers.

Gender segregation enforced at public facilities meant that female candidates could not directly meet any male voters during their campaigns.

Saudi women vote during the country’s municipal elections in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 12, 2015. The pledge to allow women to take part was made by the late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz in response to the Arab spring. “At the moment, we’re recalibrating by taking our first steps into the world of elections, voting and running for the council that we’ve been demanding since 2004”. The Saudi academic and women’s rights campaigner had to be driven there.

Women who registered ahead of this municipal election represent only a small portion of the electorate.

Speaking to Al Jazeera hours before polls opened, several women said they felt excited and positive that women are participating, with the hope that society as a whole would benefit from more diversity in public affairs leadership.

Saudi women must accompany a male relative, known as a “mahram”, whenever they venture out of the house.

She said men and women were already mixing to a degree in the workplace, supermarkets and other locations, although restaurants, banks and other public places include separate sections for “families” and single men.

Women in Saudi Arabia are still required to be accompanied by a male guardian, to cover their heads and they are still unable to drive.

At least two other women in the conservative Islamic kingdom tell the AFP that they were disqualified from running for office; another woman says the candidate she favored withdrew after being criticized by local religious officials.

Few Saudi men have raised objections about the new step for women.

David Ottaway, a Middle East specialist at the Wilson Center, said the kingdom’s slow but steady flow of concessions comes as the demands of pro-democracy activists have largely been silenced. For women alone, there are 424 polling booths.

More than 900 women are standing for office, however it is uncertain whether any will be elected.

“When I am in the street and see the roads are not paved well and there are potholes, and the [lack of] cleanliness in some areas, we can make it better and more handsome, with simple ideas that do not cost a lot”, she said. “He also has a good personality and we have never heard anything negative about him”, she said.

At a male polling centre in central Riyadh, Ahmad Soulaybi, 78, said he did not know enough about female candidates in his region to support any.