First time ever: Saudi women can now register to vote

Saudi women will also be able to run for office in the upcoming municipal elections

For the first time ever in the history of Kingdom, women in Saudi Arabia have been allowed to register to vote ahead of municipal elections scheduled for December.

Saudi women will not only be able to vote in the upcoming elections but will also be able to run for office in December this year.

Saudi Gazette newspaper identified Jamal al Saadi and Safinaz Abu al Shamat as the first two women who registered themselves as voters in Madina and Makkah, respectively.

Talking to Saudi Gazette, a local newspaper, Saadi said “The participation of the Saudi women in the municipal elections as voters and candidates was a dream for us.”

Jamal Al-Saadi was the first woman register in Madinah to vote in the Kingdom municipal elections. — PHOTO COURTESY SAUDI GAZETTE

“The move will enable Saudi women to have a say in the process of the decision-making,” she added.

Read: Saudi king gives women right to vote

After a series of protests in the Kingdom for women suffrage, late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud in 2011 said women will also take part in the next session of the unelected, advisory Shura Council, which vets legislation but has no binding powers.

“Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior ulema (clerics) and others to involve women in the Shura Council as members, starting from the next term,” he said in a speech delivered to the advisory body.

Over a third of 1,263 voting centers in municipal council elections, scheduled for December, have now been reserved for women in the country -- which still maintains strict segregation of men and women.

And with the age of voting now changed to 18, younger Saudi women will have an increased say in the makeup of at least municipal councils.

According to Arab News, as many as 70 women, including some businesswomen and others involved in social and community services from Makkah, Madina, Jeddah and Tabuk, intend to run for office. More than 80 have also registered themselves as campaign managers.

Haifa Al-Hababi, who is preparing to participate in the election, said her message in the campaign would be about change.

Terming the government’s decision to give women right to vote a tool for change, Al-Hababi said she intends to use it to change the system and life in the Kingdom.