Women cannot vote in Saudi Arabia and Vatican City, and have limited voting rights in Brunei and the UAE. Bhutan granted women full voting rights in 2008. Low female voter turnout is often due to social conventions or lack of education.
As of early 2012, women cannot vote at all in Saudi Arabia and Vatican City, and both women and men have limited voting in Brunei and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While all other countries allow women to vote in some elections, some countries traditionally have low female voter turnout due to social conventions. The most recent country to grant women full voting rights was Bhutan, which in 2008 switched from a family voting system to an individual voting system.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is one of only two countries in the world where women cannot vote in any election. Furthermore, they cannot run for any political office. Although many women attempted to register as voters in the 2011 municipal elections, they were rejected. Despite this, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has said that women will be allowed to run for municipal office and vote in 2015.
Vatican CITY
Voting in Vatican City is a little different from the rest of the world, because it’s a theocracy, or a rule by a religious figure. The only time one votes on Vatican rule is to elect a new pope after the death or resignation of a pope. Women are involved by default because the only people allowed to participate are cardinals under the age of 80. Since canon law does not allow women to be ordained priests, there are no female cardinals.
Brunei
Brunei is a monarchy, with the sultan at the head of state and government. It is advised by several councils with members appointed by the sultan, so there are no national elections in the country. Government has been run this way since a rebellion in 1962 and the country nominally exists in a state of emergency under martial law. Although men and women cannot vote nationwide, the country has universal suffrage for those over 18 in elections for village headmen.
United Arab Emirates
Neither men nor women can vote for the UAE’s overall leader, but a small percentage of men and women were allowed to vote for members of a national advisory council in 2011. During these elections, around 12 per cent of Emiratis received the right to vote, regardless of gender, which was about 20 times as many voters as eligible in the 2006 election. Eligibility criteria have not been published. Voter turnout in the 2011 election was low, with only about 28% of eligible voters actually voting. Many polling stations reported a higher percentage of women showing up to vote than men, and one woman was elected to the council.
Low participation in the female vote
Even countries where women are allowed to vote may not have a very high percentage of women actually showing up. This sometimes happens due to social or cultural traditions; for example, women in a traditionally patriarchal society may feel uncomfortable voting. Education is a problem in other areas, where women often don’t vote because they don’t know or understand their voting rights.
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