At least five Saudi women have won seats on local municipal councils a day after women voted and ran in elections for the first time in the country’s history, according to initial results released on Sunday.
The five women hail from vastly different parts of the country, ranging from Saudi Arabia’s second largest and most cosmopolitan city to a small village near Islam’s holiest sites.
Though not many women are expected to win seats, even limited gains are seen as a step forward for women who had previously been completely shut out of elections.
The Mayor of Mecca, Osama al-Bar, said on Sunday that candidate Salma al-Oteibi won in a village called Madrakah, about 150 kilometres north of the city which houses the cube-shaped Kaaba to which Muslims around the world pray.
Al-Bar also confirmed through election officials in Saudi Arabia’s second largest city of Jiddah that another female candidate, lama al-Suleiman, had won a seat there.
The official Saudi Press Agency, meanwhile, quoted the head of the Election Committee in the northern region of al-Jawf as saying that female candidate Hinuwf al-Hazmi won along with 13 men in that district. The news agency also reported that Mona el-Emery and Fadhila al-Attawy had won in the North-Western region of Tabuk.
Overall results from the capital Riyadh and other major regions were expected to be announced sometime on Saturday by the General Election Commission.
Many women candidates ran on platforms that promised more nurseries to offer longer daycare hours for working mothers, the creation of youth centres with sports and cultural activities, improved roads, better garbage collection and overall greener cities.
In October, the Saudi Gazette reported that harsh road conditions and long distances to the nearest hospital had forced some women in the village of Madrakah, where one female candidate was elected, to give birth in cars.