AL BAWABA – Qatar has held its first election recently to elect its first “legislative body”, dubbed as the Shura Council which is a consultative body rather than a fully-fledged parliament.
Thousands of Qatari voters will converge on the polling stations on Saturday, Oct 2 as the country marks the historic elections to the Shura Council to choose 30 members from as many constituencies. https://t.co/e7xEGC3Ldl
— Gulf-Times (@GulfTimes_QATAR) October 1, 2021
This is the first unicameral political structure to sit in the Emirate. It’s a 45-member body, 15 of which will be appointed to assembly by the Ruler of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Ben Hamad Al Thani.
The polls have been vibrant with 294 standing for elections according to the Turkish-based website TRT World. The elections, held Saturday morning saw a large influx of voters; it began at 8 am in the morning and went up till 6 pm according to the Anadolu news agency with people flocking to the nationwide constituencies nationwide.
Qatari's to Vote In Shoura Councilhttps://t.co/2OWyYZUNWY
— Radio Islam (@radioislam) September 28, 2021
At least 26 women stood for the elections. Elham Fakhro, a senior Gulf Analyst at the International Crisis Group told TRT World this is an “extremely positive step that women are part of this process.”
The Qatari elections have been covered well by the local media in Qatar as well as regionally. This Shura Council is being seen as mainly an advisory body and can only recommend a no-confidence vote in the prime minister only if two-thirds of the deputies agree to that.
The turnout for Qatar's first legislative elections was 63.5%, according to the internal ministry. The ruling emir will now continue to appoint the remaining 15 Council members.https://t.co/7Lrn2Tjm2t
— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) October 3, 2021
Only 300,000 of Qatar’s 2.9 million population whose majority are migrant workers are allowed to vote.
