JEDDAH, 22 January 2006 -- Women nominees are getting ready to launch their campaigns in the elections for the board of directors of the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce & Industry (EPCCI).

Despite some early objections by businessmen on the inclusion of women in the elections, six women have nominated themselves and have taken on the challenge. Voting for the new board members will begin on Feb. 18 and take place over five days.

"After the withdrawal of two men, the list of candidates as it stands now is 51 candidates, including six women. We will announce the final list of candidates probably by next week with the final names," said Najeeb Al-Saleh of the election's supervising committee at the EPCCI.

Voting will take place on Feb. 18 at the Hafr Al-Batin and Jubail branches of the chamber, on Feb. 19 at the Al-Khafji and Al-Qatif branches, and on Feb. 20 at the EPCCI headquarters in Dammam for women who want to vote in person. Men will cast their votes on Feb. 21 and 22; women can also vote on these days through their male representative. A voting supervisory committee will be formed that includes three women.

On the objections raised by some men on allowing women to participate, Saleh told Arab News that a decision was made on the issue by the minister of commerce, so whatever objections the men had were pointless.

Following in the footsteps of businesswomen in Jeddah who competed and won seats in the Jeddah chamber, marking the first time that Saudi women participated as candidates in an election on an equal footing with men, businesswomen in the Eastern Province are now looking forward to repeating that experience.

The six businesswomen who have qualified to run are Nisreen Al-Dosari, Nadia Al-Dosari, Laila Al-Oraifi, Samia Al-Idreesi, Suad Al-Zaidi and Amina Al-Jasim.

Five coalition groups were formed, four of them do not include women and the fifth is an all-women group. Samia Al-Idreesi, Nisreen Al-Dosari, Amina Al-Jasim and Suad Al-Zaidi formed the Al-Watania coalition group when the other men groups told them that they have completed their 12-member group and cannot add any more members.

"We decided, the four of us, to form this group with the support of the Businesswomen Forum of the Eastern Province which was established officially in 2000 under the chairmanship of Princess Mashael bint Faisal ibn Turki ibn Abdul Aziz," said Idreesi. The forum, which consists of 40 members, decided to support the group with resources, facilities and any other supportive facilities.

"We have the same objectives, mission and goals as the forum so our participation in the election is a translation of that and a natural progression," she said.

The group is launching their campaign officially on Tuesday.

Idreesi said that all the women candidates are professionals with long experiences. All of them are former employees of Aramco and have experience in management and planning.

There are about 1,500 establishments in the Eastern Province that are run by women. Those of them who are members in the chamber and qualify to vote are around 700, according to Idreesi, a number that might seem small.

"There are many establishments under the names of men but run by women and this is one of the problems we want to address by having a decent database, resources and information even for small and medium businesses that provide comprehensive programs to improve their performance," she said.

By Maha Akeel

© Arab News 2006