An Historic Moment for All Women: the First Ever Saudi Election where Women will Vote and Run for Office

On September 25, 2011, the Late King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz Al Saud decreed women would be allowed to vote and run as candidates for municipal council, beginning with the December 2015 election.

In less than a month, on December 12th, 2015, history will be made in Saudi Arabia. For the first time, women will be voting and running for municipal offices. The municipal offices manage day-to-day city concerns, urban policies and other daily affairs.

Campaigning has begun for the December 12 election, and Elan is outlining some basic facts to help you understand this new process:

1) How many seats are up for election ?

Two-thirds of the Kingdom’s 284 seats are available. The other third will be appointed by the government. Approximately 865 women are standing for local elections and roughly 6,140 Saudis in total are competing to hold office. The numbers are tough to pin down, since people are being barred from running in the election and finding out only after they have launched their campaigns.

The Late King Abdullah also decreed nearly 20% of the Shura Council be female. The Shura Council is a group of officials appointed by the King that act as advisors to the king on issues related to the Kingdom. There are 150 seats in the Shura Council with 12 committees focused on human rights, education, culture, information, health and social affairs, services and public utilities, foreign affairs, security, administration, Islamic affairs, economy and industry and finance.

2) How does campaigning in Saudi work now?

No candidate is allowed to post photos of themselves. Female candidates are not allowed to hold rallies with men in attendance; to reach the male constituency, they must use spokesman or TV appearances. Some women have set up small tents in their districts, hoping constituents will visit to learn more about them.

3) Social Media to the Rescue

Most candidates are running their elections via Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Sameera Abdullah al-Shamat, a candidate from Jeddah admitted, “My daughter and two sons are running my campaign.”

Saudi currently has 1.5 million voters registered with 136,000 being women. Female candidates are taking on the challenges of campaigning despite the barriers stacked up against them. Um Fawaz, a teacher who lives in Hafr al-Batin, said, “We will vote for the women even though we don’t know anything about them. It is enough that they are women.”

Many women are excited about the opportunity and hope this will help change things for the better in the macro for Saudi women. However, the matter of women voting is not often discussed without also covering the right for women to drive. Loujain Hathloul, a candidate in the current elections has been barred from running for office as she was detained for more than two months after she tried to drive into Kingdom last December from the United Arab Emirates. She tweeted, “I’ve been eliminated as a candidate for the municipal elections.”

Elan wants to hear how you feel about the upcoming Saudi elections and the state of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. Please share your thoughts, comments and memes on our site and social media.