Qataris yesterday began voting in the Gulf state’s first legislative elections for two-thirds of the advisory Shura Council in a vote that has stirred domestic debate about electoral inclusion and citizenship.
Voters began trickling into polling stations, where men and women entered separate sections, to elect 30 members of the 45-seat body. The ruling emir would continue to appoint the remaining 15 members.
“With the chance to vote, I feel this is a new chapter,” said Munira, a children’s book author who asked to be identified by only one name. “I’m really happy of the number of women standing as candidates.”
Photo: Reuters
The Council would have legislative authority, and approve general state policies and the budget, but would have no control over executive bodies setting defense, security, economic and investment policies for the small, but wealthy gas producer, which bans political parties.
Eighteen women are among the 183 candidates hoping to be elected at stations across 30 districts in the country, which has for several years held municipal polls.
Campaigning has taken place on social media, community meetings and roadside billboards.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“This is a first-time experience for me ... to be here and meet people talking about these things that we need,” said Khalid Almutawah, a candidate in the Markhiya District. “In the end we want to promote our society, and we try our best to help our people and our government.”
The election indicates that Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family is “taking seriously the idea of symbolically sharing power, but also effectively sharing power institutionally with other Qatari tribal groups,” Georgia State University’s Middle East Studies Center director Allen Fromherz said.
The election, approved in a 2003 constitutional referendum, comes ahead of Doha hosting the soccer World Cup next year.
However, critics have said that voting eligibility is too narrow.
Qatari Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani last month described the vote as a new “experiment,” saying that the council cannot be expected from the first year to have the “full role of any parliament.”
Kuwait has been the only Gulf monarchy to give substantial powers to an elected parliament, although ultimate decisionmaking rests with the country’s emir, as in neighboring states.
The huge number of foreign workers in Qatar, the world’s top liquefied natural gas producer, means that nationals make up only 10 percent of the population of 2.8 million.
However, even then not all Qataris are eligible to vote.
The polls have stirred tribal sensitivities after some members of a main tribe found themselves ineligible to vote under a law restricting voting to Qataris whose family was present in the country before 1930.
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has said that there is a “clear process” for the electoral law to be reviewed by the next Shura Council.
Human Rights Watch has said that thousands of Qataris are excluded.
The organization said that Qatar arrested about 15 demonstrators at a protest led by Al Murra tribe members in August, as well as critics of the voting law.
A Qatari source with knowledge of the matter on Friday said that two critics remained in custody “for inciting violence and hate speech.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS