For the first time in the Gulf emirate of Qatar, the election of a consultative assembly took place. It is not undisputed.
In the Arab emirate of Qatar on the Persian Gulf, a nationwide election of a so-called consultative assembly took place for the first time.
Citizens were allowed to vote on 30 out of a total of 45 members of the body on Saturday. The remaining 15 members were to be determined by Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, as before.
The desert state with its roughly three million inhabitants is an absolute monarchy: the emir is responsible for the executive and the legislature, and there is no parliament or political parties.
The election to the assembly was made possible by a new constitution in 2004, but has since been postponed several times. More than 200 candidates were in the running for 30 seats. The vote should end at 6 p.m. local time. Qatar will host the next soccer World Cup in November and December 2022.
The assembly has some limited powers. It can approve the budget, supervise the ministers’ work and initiate laws. But every decision needs a two-thirds majority and has to be ratified by the emir.
The election is controversial because only a minority of the population is allowed to stand – namely «original» Qataris. This refers to people whose families were resident in Qatar before 1930. A large part of the population has moved from abroad, including hundreds of thousands of migrant workers.
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