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Voters in United Arab Emirates set to vote in historic elections |
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12/16/2006 9:03:03 AM |
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The Arab world's slow lurch toward democracy will take another step forward this weekend when the wealthy United Arab Emirates holds the first election in its 35-year history.
Some 450 candidates, including 65 women, are running for 20 open seats on the Federal National Council, a government advisory body seen as an eventual precursor to a national parliament.
"This is a new experiment and a new experience for us," Anwar Gergash, the government minister overseeing the election, said this week.
The United Arab Emirates is the most liberal and modern society on the Arabian Peninsula, with beaches crammed with bikini-clad women and restaurants serving alcohol and pork, banned under Muslim law.
But when it comes to democracy, the Emirates has trailed. Citizens here have watched as every single neighbor held some sort of election, even conservative Saudi Arabia, which, like the Emirates, is run by tribal royal families.
On Saturday, a handful of voters in the capital Abu Dhabi and the eastern emirate of Fujeirah will become the first Emirati citizens to cast ballots since independence in 1971. Voters in Dubai and the other four emirates that make up the federal state will visit polls Monday and Wednesday.
The Emirates' first experiment with democracy has been touted as a major step in empowering the country's 800,000 citizens, among an overall population of 4.5 million, many of whom are immigrant workers. But in power-sharing terms, the election is nearly meaningless.
"It's not really democracy yet," conceded candidate Sheikha al-Mulla, a female psychologist running for one of eight seats in Dubai. "It's preparing the country and the people for the next elections in four years."
The government has hedged against the likelihood of revolutionary change by hand-picking the 6,700 people who will be allowed to vote. It also has balanced the 20 elected members of the Federal National Council with 20 appointed members.
If that weren't enough, the council itself has no formal power. It acts only as an advisory body whose advice can be discarded.
But in the wealthy Emirates, where citizens are a privileged minority with access to free housing and lucrative government jobs, there is little clamor for elections. Many here say the galloping economy is evidence the government has done a good job, and voting is being arranged simply because it is the global fashion.
"It was getting awkward so they had to address it," said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political science professor at Emirates University and newspaper columnist who has long advocated elections. "From a historical perspective, it's a step forward. But this is also for outside consumption."
The biggest argument against democracy here is the chaos in Iraq. Gergash, the government minister, said some in the Middle East equate democracy with instability and therefore want to only test it with caution. Some think that elections in Iraq, Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories have either deepened sectarian divisions or brought Islamist hard-liners to power.
"We see elections as divisive and breaking up the social fabric," Gergash said. "We'd rather be safe than sorry. That's why we're moving forward in this measured way."
But the lack of democracy also has become something of an embarrassment in a country that boasts one of the world's highest levels of education, has become a center for international conferences and investment banking and is now a regional hub for the United Nations.
"I'm in my mid-40s. I have a Ph.D., and I've never taken part in an election," Gergash said.
Some 15 percent of the candidates and eligible voters are women, who are permitted to vote and run for office in all Gulf countries except Saudi Arabia, which barred women from participating in municipal elections.
A woman was elected to parliament in nearby Bahrain last month, the first ever in any Gulf Arab state. Kuwait allowed women to vote and run for office for the first time in elections held in June. No female candidates won, but a woman was given a Cabinet post. Qatar and Oman have also held low-level elections.
The Emirates' elected council is expected to be the precursor for a parliament that is years away, but the country currently has no elections law, no guidelines for formation of political parties and no constitutional provision for a parliament. |
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