No direct interaction between male, female council members

Fuente: 
Saudi Gazette
Fecha de publicación: 
18 Dic 2015

DAMMAM — Women members of municipal councils will not interact with their male counterparts face-to-face, according to Director General of Municipal Councils Affairs Judai Al-Qahtani.

“We are making a lot of new adjustments with the participation of women in the council. However, we will not compromise the religious boundaries. Female members have equal rights as male members of the council but they will not have mixed meetings,” said Al-Qahtani.

He added the women members will have separate meetings and offices. “There have been rumors circulating that municipal council members will be given a plot of land as part of their membership and a bonus of up to SR500,000. The rumors are untrue. We have rules for financial rewards given to municipal council members and we will publish these soon,” said Al-Qahtani.

Aisha Bakri, Jazan municipal council member who ran for the seat alongside seven other women and 143 men, said, “I am grateful that I won and I will represent all women in my area.”

“The ones who have lost have not lost hope and they plan to run again in four years. We are not as experienced as our male peers, but the women who ran have gained experience and will come back prepared,” she said.

Meanwhile, the total number of women winning the municipal councils seats reached 21 after a final votecount, Al-Hayat reported. Al-Qahtani said 702,542 voters — 130,000 of them were women — exercised took part in the voting.

The Northern Borders region witnessed the highest turnout as 73.3 percent of the eligible voters voted. Hail witnessed 67.2 percent turnout, Al-Jouf 66.3%, Jeddah 34.8% and Makkah 30.8%. Al-Ahsa witnessed the lowest turnout with only 26.5% of eligible voters coming out to vote.

Al-Qahtani said that candidates can challenge the results and the votecount at their local voting centers within five days from the day of the announcement of results.

 

Fuente: http://saudigazette.com.sa/saudi-arabia/no-direct-interaction-between-ma...