While launching the municipal election campaign in Riyadh recently, Prince Mansour ibn Miteb, chairman of the general election committee, emphasized women’s right to participate in elections. He clarified that the word “muwatin” used in the election bylaw covers female citizens.

However, the chief election officer pointed out that women would not be able to participate in elections this time due to technical reasons. I would like to present some solutions to help women participate in the polls.

As the law ensures women’s right to vote and run in elections, some vague reasons must not be allowed to obstruct their participation, and maximum efforts must be taken to overcome them. Stopping participation of 50 percent of the population in elections citing time constraints is both weak and unreasonable in light of the announcement made by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd that woman is a partner of man in social development. The authorities have presented three reasons for keeping women away from the elections. First, less than 10 percent of the women eligible to vote have ID cards. Second, there are many requirements to ensure women’s participation, and they are expensive. Third, there is lack of qualified women to conduct the elections.

The main reason for the lower number of women holding IDs is that the government has not made it compulsory for all women, though it is required for security. But this is not a problem, authorities can allow these women to vote and contest elections. This will again encourage women to get ID cards if they want to take part in the democratic process. There is still time for women to register both as candidates and voters, especially for the last two phases of elections. Another solution is to establish ID card counters at voter registration centers in coordination with the Interior Ministry. Female voters may also be allowed to register using other forms of identification, such as passports, as most women already have them.

The ID cards are to prove the names, nationalities and ages of voters, and this can be done with the support of the Education Ministry register for secondary graduates and secondary-school students who graduated after 1421H. They could be allowed to register and vote for their candidates.

Another suggestion is that authorities stop women from running in elections but allow them to vote, on condition that all the 50 percent of the appointed members of the council be women.

The second reason — related to procedures and financing — is a bit exaggerated as the cost of women’s participation would be nothing compared to the windfall from oil price hike this year and the freedom given to the Municipal and Rural Affairs Ministry to finance the election.

What is required is to set aside two or more centers at girls schools, charitable societies or universities to register women voters after checking their identities, set up a women’s wing to supervise constituencies and appoint some female officers to ensure security. The voting process also can be arranged in the same way without much difficulty.

With regard to the third reason, I would like to point out that there are thousands of qualified women, including university teachers and graduates and holders of master’s and doctoral degrees who can conduct elections. It seems that the election committee is not aware of the capabilities of women. Lack of women representatives in various organizing committees is to blame for this.

What I want to emphasize here is that participation of women in municipal elections is not a complicated issue. Even in an impoverished country like Afghanistan, which has been hit by internal and international conflicts for more than two decades, women participated in not municipal, but presidential elections. The problems of procedures or finance did not stand in the way of Afghan women’s participation in elections.

We have great confidence in the Saudi leadership that it will make serious efforts to enhance women’s participation, and we have seen this in many forums. I also hope that the election committee will look into the proposals and solutions to ensure women’s participation from this election. We are so eager. We cannot wait for long.