The voting has begun in Qatar’s first legislative elections for two-thirds of seats in the 45-member advisory Shura Council.
Polls opened at 8 am local time (10 am PST) as Qataris began lining up outside polling stations on Saturday. Men and women entered separate polling sections to elect 30 members of the 45-seat body. The country’s ruling emir will have the authority to appoint the remaining 15 members of the council.
The polling will close at 6 pm local time (8 pm PST) and the results are expected by the day end.
The council will have legislative authority and mandate to approve general state policies and the budget. However, the legislative body will have no control over executive bodies setting defence, security, economic, and investment policy for the small but wealthy gas producing country as Qatar has a long-running ban on political parties.
In this context, the elections have triggered a domestic debate about electoral inclusion and citizenship, despite the vote being seen as a major step in the modernisation of the governing system.
The controlled ‘experiment’
Earlier last month, Qatar’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani described the vote as a new “experiment”. He said that the council cannot be expected to have the “full role of any parliament” from its very first year.
The country’s powerful interior ministry approved all candidates against a host of criteria, including age, character, and criminal history. The candidates have uniformly circumvented discourse about Qatar’s foreign policy or its monarchal system. Instead, the focal point of the campaigning has been about social issues including healthcare, education, and citizenship rights.
The candidate list is dominated by men, with close to 30 women among the 284 hopefuls running for the 30 available council seats. The candidates have extensively campaigned on social media, in community meetings, and on roadside billboards.
A candidate from the Markhiya district Khalid Almutawah said, “This is a first-time experience for me … to be here and meet people talking about these things that we need. In the end, we want to promote our society and we try our best to help our people and our government.”
Experts say that the historic elections indicate that Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family is rather serious about “the idea of symbolically sharing power, but also effectively sharing power institutionally with other Qatari tribal groups.”
Before today’s vote in Qatar, Kuwait was the only Gulf monarchy to give substantial powers to an elected parliament; although, the ultimate decision-making rests with the ruler, as in neighbouring states.
Electoral divisions and eligibility
The candidates can declare their candidacy from the electoral divisions linked to where their family or tribe was based in the 1930s, using data compiled by the then-British authorities.
There are about 333,000 Qataris, who make up only 10 per cent of the population of 2.8 million. However, an electoral law – that was approved last July – only allows the descendants of those who were citizens in 1930 to vote and stand. The law disqualifies members of families naturalised since then.
