According to a report carried by Al-Eqtisadiah business daily, Minister of Commerce and Industry Tawfiq Al-Rabeeah has been requested to appoint businesswomen to the chamber’s board without their participation in the upcoming elections.

“We need women members on the board in order to make the voice of thousands of businesswomen and women entrepreneurs heard. They had not been represented during the previous terms of the chamber’s board of directors,” a businesswoman said. The new proposal came after three women candidates failed to make it into the board during the last chamber elections. Moreover, the ministry had appointed businessmen who received fewer votes than women candidates to the board.

Analysts say women members of the Riyadh chamber are hesitant in taking part in the upcoming election after some alliances had refused to include women in the last election. Moreover, a substantial number of women members are not interested in chamber polls.

“In light of the above situation, appointment of women to the board will be the ideal solution to make them sit in the chairs of decision makers and help them raise the issues related to businesswomen and women investors,” a source told the business daily.

Meanwhile, Hussein Al-Adel, secretary general of the chamber, emphasized the right of women to participate in elections as both candidates and voters. “The chamber’s law deals with all members equally irrespective of their gender,” he said.

Al-Adel denied suggestions that the chamber gives preference to wealthy candidates. “The election is open to all qualified candidates including men and women. All members who have renewed their membership can take part as candidates and voters.”

He said the chamber’s secretariat would have no link with the candidates or voters during elections. “We are just an executive body, and our role ends after making necessary preparations for the polls. The election is conducted by a committee appointed by the minister,” he pointed out.

It is worth mentioning that women were allowed for the first time to contest Riyadh chamber polls in the last election. Huda Al-Jeraisy was one of the three women candidates. Although there were 2,600 women members, only 85 of them voted in the last election.