The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industries (JCCI) announced on Tuesday night the results of the committee elections. At least 228 businessmen and women were elected to 19 committees. While some committees were dominated by men, other committees witnessed remarkable competition among female candidates, such as the private schools committee in which there were 12 women candidates out of a total of 24 candidates.
According to Mohiuddin Hakami, the JCCI assistant secretary-general, the election process was done electronically for the first time in the history of the elections of the Saudi Chambers.
He explained that the announcement of the results of the elections put an end to the longest election period in the history of the Saudi Chambers, as it extended for nearly six months. He said there will be a one-week period for submitting appeals, followed immediately by the formation of committees and the determination of the dates for these committees to start their work.
The election produced 12 winning members for each committee, while another 6 experts will be appointed by the Chamber Board of Director. The period of work for these committees, as well as the Board of Directors, is four years.
Hakami said that for the first time in the history of chamber elections in the Kingdom and in the Gulf, the number of candidates in the election exceeded 650 candidates, the number of voters exceeded 1,500 voters, and more than 3,000 votes were cast in total.
He said competition continued until the final moments in the young entrepreneurs, contractors, lawyers, private schools, real estate, transportation, and fabrics and garments committees.
Forty-two young candidates competed for 12 seats in the Young Businessmen Committee, while the Private Schools Committee experienced a great competition due to the merging of the girls and boys private schools’ committees. Twenty-six candidates competed for seats in the committee, of which 14 were male candidates and 12 were female candidates. During the election period, the Chamber allowed the use of all means of advertising by the candidates until the time of voting.
Nineteen committees held elections, but those with an insufficient number of candidates were exempted. “Members of these committees will be appointed by the Chamber or will be merged with other committees with similar sector activity,” said Hakami. It is worth mentioning that the elections for this session of the Jeddah Chamber had a different atmosphere, as a result of a number of various judicial rulings indicating nullity of the previous Chamber’s committees’ elections.
Women among 228 elected to JCCI bodies
