Niall Holohan: Election of 20 women in Saudi Arabia is not meaningless

The people of Saudi Arabia took an important, if faltering, step towards democracy on December 12th when elections for municipal councils throughout the country took place. For the first time, women could not only vote but were also able to stand as candidates.

As with similar elections which took place in 2005 and 2011, the results have been less than earth-shattering. Approximately 10 million Saudi citizens were eligible to vote in the elections but only 1.35 million men and 130,000 women actually bothered to register.

The low number of women registered can be partially explained by the fact that many Saudi women do not even possess personal identity cards. Overall, 6,917 candidates (of whom 979 were women) stood for 2,106 seats in 284 councils across the kingdom. In addition, a further 1,053 seats (ie one-third) are to be filled directly by government appointment in the coming weeks.

By Western standards, some of the electioneering regulations can only be described as strange and amusing. In particular, no photographs of any of the candidates could be displayed. Initially the rule had applied only to female candidates but – after claims that this amounted to gender discrimination – all candidates were subject to the prohibition. The same ruling applied to appearances in any newspaper or broadcasting media.

In the absence of adequate resources to interview all 6,917 candidates, the authorities decided that no interviews at all would be allowed. The candidates were accordingly reduced to launching their campaigns on social networking sites. Even the number of WhatsApp or text messages sent by candidates, however, was subject to limitations in order to avoid “harassment” of the voters.

Low participation

According to the latest official results, 20 female candidates have been elected. As small as this figure may be, it is still larger than most people expected. The electoral turnout has been recorded as 47.4 per cent of those registered to vote. Given the low proportion who actually registered, however, it can be estimated that perhaps no more than 7 or 8 per cent of the total potential electorate actually cast their ballots.

As in the previous two municipal elections, it is to be expected that many of those elected will have Islamist tendencies, reflecting the traditionalist and extreme elements existing in Saudi society. This is believed by many to be one of the reasons why the local councils elected in the past have to date been given little power by the authorities, even in the management of their local civic responsibilities. It remains to be seen if the newly elected councils will suffer the fate of their predecessors.

While it would be foolish to suggest that this putative exercise in people’s power has turned Saudi Arabia into a democratic society, it would also be wrong to reject it as insubstantial and meaningless. Given the current political situation in most of the Arab world, it can be argued that stability and prosperity in the Arabian peninsula is essential if the Middle East as a whole is not to descend into further social turmoil.

Consultation

In strictly legal terms, Saudi Arabia is one of the few remaining absolute monarchies in the world. In practice, however, widespread popular consultation does take place and the king’s authority could be seriously undermined if he were to act without ensuring that widespread support exists for his policies. What is often forgotten is that Saudi Arabia remains an intensely conservative society which only a century ago consisted largely of primitive nomadic tribes surviving under very harsh desert conditions. Accordingly, aside from the educated elite, there continues today to be a huge reluctance among the ordinary populace to diverge from traditional Islamic teachings and local Bedouin/tribal practices.

One only has to look at recent electoral and other developments in such countries as Egypt, Libya, Iraq and Syria to realise that the default position in many Arab countries is Islamism in one form or another. This has led inevitably to extremism and anti-democratic behaviour wherever the popular will has been unleashed in an uncontrolled fashion.

One must recognise therefore the value of the steps now being taken in Saudi Arabia to modernise the social and political aspects of Saudi society, no matter how slowly. The recent municipal elections are a small but important part of this progressive process. A further important step would be the introduction of democratic elections for the Shoura Council (parliament), he main body advising the king on all matters of national importance. It is greatly to be hoped that such a development will take place before too long.

Dr Niall Holohan was Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2009 to 2014.