KUWAIT, April 4: Women made history in Kuwait on Tuesday by voting and running for office for the first time in a local by-election after the conservative, US-allied Gulf state granted them suffrage last year. Polls opened at 8am (1000 PST) for the vote to fill a single seat in the Municipal Council, a 16-member body. The rest of the members were elected and appointed last year.

“Today is the biggest feast we have been waiting for for more than 40 years,” Khaleda al-Khadher, one of the two female candidates, told Reuters at a polling station in Salwa suburb.

“This is the first time Kuwaiti women can show the men that we are capable, it is important that we do our best and leave the outcome of the polls to God,” added Khadher, wearing a conservative black Islamic-style dress.

Some 28,000 voters, including 16,000 women, are eligible to cast ballots for the eight candidates, who include two women.

Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah said in remarks published on Tuesday that the political participation of women would boost Kuwait’s international standing.

“We are proud and we are honoured,” the prime minister said.—Reuters