Qatar votes in referendum on scrapping legislative elections

The vote approved a raft of constitutional amendments with 90.6% of valid ballots cast by Qatari citizens

A referendum in Qatar to scrap short-lived legislative polls has passed with more than 90% of the vote, officials said on Wednesday (November 6, 2024), ending a flirtation with democracy in the Gulf monarchy.

The vote approved a raft of constitutional amendments with 90.6% of valid ballots cast by Qatari citizens, the Interior Ministry said.

"By participating in the referendum and by voting in favour of the constitutional amendments, Qataris have celebrated... the values of unity and justice," Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, posted on X.

Eighty-four percent of eligible voters among the roughly 380,000 Qataris — a minority in the gas-rich peninsula — took part in Tuesday's referendum, an Interior Ministry statement said.

The key proposal was to end elections for 30 of the 45 seats of the Shura Council, an advisory body with limited powers, which took place for the first and only time in 2021.

The polls, a year before Qatar held the football World Cup under intense international scrutiny, had stoked division as only descendants of Qataris who were citizens in 1930 were eligible to vote and run, and constituencies were mapped out along tribal lines.

Some members of the sizeable Al-Murrah tribe were among those excluded from the electoral process, sparking a fierce debate online and sporadic protests at the time.

Among other changes approved in Tuesday's referendum was a move to allow all Qataris, including naturalised citizens, to hold ministerial office, a right previously reserved for Qatari-born nationals.

Sheikh Tamim will now resume appointing all members of the Shura Council, which can propose legislation, approve the budget and recall Ministers — subject to a veto by the emir.

As well as the one-off legislative poll, Qatar has also held municipal elections every four years since 1999.

Published - November 06, 2024 11:11 pm IST