JUBAIL, Feb 18: Six Saudi women are running for the board of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the oil-rich Eastern Province, confident that they will make inroads in the hitherto male-only body.

“I expect at least one, or (even) two women to get elected,” Amina al-Jassem, a US graduate in computer and business administration and one of the six female candidates, said as the voting got under way on Saturday.

If women clinch one or more seats on the board, which will have 12 elected members and another six appointed by the trade and industry minister, they would be repeating the groundbreaking victory of counterparts in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, who won two of the 12 seats up for grabs there last November.

The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry polls were the first in which women stood as candidates in conservative Saudi Arabia.

Another Saudi woman scored a first the following month when she won election to the engineers’ syndicate, a feat seen as part of a slow reform drive under way in the country.

Saudi women, who are subject to a host of restrictions, were barred from landmark nationwide municipal elections last year.

“The entry of women into the board of directors (of the Eastern Province chamber) is a necessity,” said businessman Daoud al-Ossaimi, one of 40 men in the running.

“We are betting on educated businessmen” to vote them into the board, he said.

“At the very least, some will argue: why should the people of Jeddah be better than us?” Osaimi added.

The voting began Saturday in the industrial city of Jubail and other parts of the Eastern Province and will continue until Wednesday. Businesswomen will vote on Monday at the seat of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the regional capital of Dammam.

Some 11,000 chamber members are eligible to cast ballots, according to a chamber official.

Only 400 women are among the eligible voters, which means that the victory of one or more of the six female candidates, like in the case of Jeddah, would be thanks to male voters.—AFP