JEDDAH, 28 November 2005 — Despite the low turnout of women voters for the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry board elections over the past two days, first-time women candidates expressed optimism about their chances of victory.
Now that women’s balloting is over, women candidates are hanging their hopes on the men’s vote today and tomorrow. After a grueling month of campaigning for the historic elections, they’re anxiously awaiting the Tuesday night tally.
“We shouldn’t look at the turnout in a negative way; there’s a positive side to it,” said Lama Al-Sulaiman, running among the Lejeddah Group. She said in previous JCCI elections there have been more than 20,000 commercial licenses under men’s names, and of the 5,000 active members, only about 1,500 voted.
“So for 60 out of the 300 active businesswomen members of the chamber to show up and vote is very good,” she told Arab News. She also noted the candidates didn’t have enough time to prepare and campaign. “We didn’t know that we would be able to run until quite late,” Al-Sulaiman said. “Then we were squeezed for time to get organized and campaign in two months, and one of these months was Ramadan when it was inconvenient to do anything.”
It also took a couple of weeks to get oriented. “We took a crash course on elections and campaigning because none of us had participated in any kind of election before,” Al-Sulaiman said. “We don’t have a culture of voting and elections. We should start teaching students in schools about it.”
Al-Sulaiman said the next JCCI elections in four years will be much better for women candidates and voters.
“This year, it is the men’s vote that will make the difference for us,” she said.
They hold out hope that men will vote for them — especially since by custom many of the businesswomen have their commercial licenses registered under a male relative’s name. Some of the businesswomen also prefer to send their wakeel (legal guardian or representative) to vote on their behalf.
“Women turnout was lower than expected,” said Fatima Sheikh, one of the women observers of the elections appointed by the Ministry of Commerce. The observer’s role was to verify documents and make sure mobile phones were not allowed in the voting hall. The voters went through three stages of filtering to ensure they were eligible to vote.
“The process went smooth, and the businesswomen who voted were aware and knowledgeable about the elections,” said Sheikh.
Some candidates put part of the responsibility for the public’s lack of awareness on the media.
“It’s true that people don’t read, but the media itself was not very informative,” said Hessa Al-Oun, who is running as an independent. “The media is a guide, and it should be balanced and objective in its presentation. It should be above the fray.”
Al-Oun’s platform in this election was awareness, and she said she hopes that with greater awareness there will be new ideas, new blood and better opportunities in the chamber. She feels a separate chamber for smaller businesses might offer better representation for them.
“I think previous mistakes and misuse of authority have turned members off from voting,” Al-Oun said. “We have to regain their confidence.”
