Riyadh — It was a historic day for Saudi women, who for the first time took part in an electoral process by voting as well as running as candidates in municipal elections on Saturday. "Now women have a voice," Awatef Marzooq said after casting her ballot for the first time at a school in the capital. "I cried. This is something that we only used to see on television taking place in other countries." Mohammed Al-Shammari, who had just dropped off his daughter, a teacher, said he had encouraged her to vote. "We want to break this barrier," he said. "As long as she has her own place and there is no mixing with men, what prevents her from voting? We support anything that does not violate Shariah," he said. More than 900 women are running, competing with nearly 6,000 men for seats. More than 130,000 women have registered to vote compared to 1.35 million men. As many as 1,486,477 female and male voters were eligible to cast vote to choose 6,440 candidates in the municipal elections which closed at 05:00 p.m. The election, which does not have quotas for females, is widely seen as a small but significant opening for women to play a more equal role in Saudi society. "To tell you the truth, I'm not running to win," said Amal Badreldin Al-Sawari, 60, a pediatrician in central Riyadh. "I think I have done the winning by running." "I don't consider winning to be the ultimate goal ... but it is the right of being a citizen that I concentrate on and I consider this a turning point," said Hatoon Al-Fassi, general coordinator for the grassroots Saudi Baladi Initiative that worked closely with women to raise voter awareness and increase female participation in the election. Chairman of the elections' Executive Committee Eng. Judai Bin Nahar Al-Gahtani, spokesman of the municipal elections, said in a press conference that 235 candidates, out of them nine women, were disqualified during the campaigning period which lasted 12 days and ended last Thursday for violating the election regulations. The regulations prevent lobbying on tribal or regional bases. The penalty starts with disqualification and a SR50,000 fine. The Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs Abdullatif Al-Asheikh said the results of the municipal elections will be announced on Sunday. He said the voting centers have already started the counting of votes. He added there are 284 municipalities in the Kingdom and 1,263 voting centers. Makkah National Society for Human Rights (NSHR)General Supervisor Sulaiman Al-Zaidi said NSHR formed 20 committees to oversee the counting process. "Our job is to ensure transparency and justice in vote counting. A member of our committees will be involved in vote counting. Our inspectors also monitored the voting in several centers," said Al-Zaidi. The Kingdom's first municipal ballot was in 2005, for men only. — With agencies
