JEDDAH: Although the proceedings of the elections for the board of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) were well organized, many observers were not happy. “As a young voter, I feel the message carried by the JCCI election was totally negative. It gave me the impression that it is the power of wealth that makes a candidate win the polls, and that there is no consideration for his efficiency or professionalism or his election program,” wrote Mahmoud Sabbagh in Al-Watan Arabic daily, expressing his indignation about incidents that took place during the election. He also pointed out that the election law lacked clauses for monitoring and investigating excesses.
The results of the latest JCCI election also showed setback for women. In the previous board there were at least three women members including Nashwa Taher, a well-known businesswoman. This time only one of the seven women candidates — Lama Suleiman — was elected, despite the increase in the number of women voters from 99 to 160.
The previous term, under the leadership of Saleh Al-Turki, gave businesswomen greater opportunity and helped them perform professionally inside the chamber. It also enabled them to lobby for their rights and mobilize popular support for women candidates. This naturally resulted in increasing the number of women voters.
JCCI was a pioneer among the Kingdom’s chambers in allowing women to participate in elections as contestants and voters. This led to greater participation and gaining good media coverage. But the excesses that have been committed during this election by some candidates in terms of buying votes and using the power of wealth have disappointed many. As rightly pointed out by Sabbagh, “the voice of wealth exceeded the voice of candidates’ election programs.”
The organization of the election was better this time as compared to the last one, but the partisan spirit showed by some candidates making use of their tribal and religious influences soured the election atmosphere. According to Sabbagh, it was partisan politics that triggered conflicts leading to fistfights. He also emphasized the need to set out strict monitoring regimes by the Public Prosecution and the Ministry of Commerce to prevent such unruly incidents.
Lama Suleiman said most of the women candidates participated in the election after obtaining adequate experience. She described women participation in the poll as excellent, despite their being few in number. She said the allocation of one day for women voters compared to three for men was reasonable as there are only 400 women voters compared to 32,000 male voters. She said she does not want to comment on the exchange of blows by candidates but pointed out that “such incidents are quite natural in elections.”
