20 women victorious in 1st open elections
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi voters elected 20 women for local government seats, according to results released Sunday, a day after women voted and ran in elections for the first time in the country’s history.
The women who won hail from vastly different parts of the country, ranging from Saudi Arabia’s largest city, Riyadh, to a small village near Islam’s holiest sites
Though not many women won seats, even limited gains are seen as a step forward for women who had previously been completely shut out of elections. Women are still not allowed to drive and are governed by guardianship laws that give men final say over aspects of their lives like marriage, travel and higher education.
General Election Commission spokesman Hamad Al-Omar said that out of 130,000 female registered voters, a staggering 106,000 cast ballots, or roughly 82 percent. More than 1.35 million men had registered to vote, with 44 percent, or almost 600,000, casting ballots.
Al-Omar said the women won seats in 10 different regions.
The conservative capital of Riyadh saw the most female candidates win, with four elected. The Eastern Province, where minority Shiites are concentrated, saw two women elected.
The mayor of the city of Mecca, Osama al-Bar, said a woman won in a village called Madrakah, about 90 miles north of the city which houses the cube-shaped Kaaba to which Muslims around the world pray.
Saudi Arabia’s second largest and most cosmopolitan city, Jiddah, elected two women, as did one of the most conservative regions, Qassim.
Around 7,000 candidates, among them 979 women, competed for 2,100 seats across the country. The councils are the only government body elected by Saudi citizens. The two previous rounds of voting for the councils, in 2005 and 2011, were open to men only.
Many female candidates ran on platforms that promised more nurseries to offer longer day care hours for working mothers, the creation of youth centers with sports and cultural activities, improved roads, better garbage collection and overall greener cities.
It is precisely these kinds of community issues that female candidates hope to address once elected to the municipal councils. The councils do not have legislative powers but advise authorities and help oversee local budgets.