Saudi women begin polls campaigns

Saudi women began their first-ever campaigns for public office yesterday, in a step forward for women's rights in the conservative kingdom's slow reform process.

More than 900 women are standing in the December 12 municipal elections, which will also mark the first time women are allowed to vote.

Ruled by King Salman, oil-rich Saudi Arabia has no elected legislature but has faced intense Western scrutiny over its rights record. The country's first municipal elections were held in 2005, followed by another vote in 2011, but in both cases only men were allowed to participate.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive. Women must also cover themselves in black from head-to-toe in public and require permission from male family members to travel, work or marry.

In other Gulf states, women have had some voting rights for several years. About 7,000 people are vying for seats on 284 municipal councils in the vote, the Saudi electoral commission says.

Only around 131,000 women have signed up to vote, compared with more than 1.35 million men, out of a native Saudi population of almost 21 million.