The 50-year old Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is seeing fierce competition from female candidates for the first time, in the election to its 12-member board of directors, a report said.

The chamber's 41,000 members voted yesterday for the 37 candidates in the fray which includes three women, according to the Gulf News report.

Though women have been elected to the board of directors of the chambers in Jeddah and Dammam, for Riyadh, this is the first time.