The Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry has successfully held its membership elections with 2000 voters out of an eligible 5000 taking part in the vote. Procedures were not without their hitches, however, as a computer glitch obliged the voting to be counted manually, delaying the announcement of the result until 3 AM Thursday morning. Adel Abdullah Ka'ki was voted the outright winner by a margin of 174 from Waleed Eskander who gained 285. Tariq Abaidallah Najami managed 180 votes, followed by Mohammad Abu Samad Al-Qurashi with 163, Mohammad Ba Wazeer with 137 votes and Zuhair Saleh Ali Nori with 107 votes. Following them came Talal Merza with 104 votes and Saad Jameel Al-Qurashi, with 85. Abdul Aziz Isma'el Seet achieved 80 votes, and Saud Al-Sa'edi won 72 votes. Candidates elected to the standby list should members withdraw from the chamber in the future were Abdul Wahab Saleem Al-Harbi with 62 votes, Abdul Majeed Abdurrahman Seet with 40 votes, and Nabeel Dahlawi with 19 votes. Five women ran in the elections with the most successful achieving only 10 votes. She did not attend the announcement of the results. The five female candidates called on the Minister of Trade and Industry to give them the five seats in the chamber usually reserved for members by appointment. They noted that they were in a better position to understand the needs of Makkah's businesswomen.
