DOHA: Polling for the 5th term of the Central Municipal Council (CMC) is being held today amid expectations of a low voter turnout.
Many contestants in the fray who have campaigned vigorously for the election say people are largely disenchanted with the civic body as it has no executive authority.
“There has been no or little change in the status of the CMC in terms of its authority since it was first elected in early 1999 and that is why not many people are keen to take part in the electoral process,” says Fatima Al Kuwari.
Saying how people were less excited about today’s election, she told this newspaper yesterday that her constituency (Number 9) had some 7,000 Qataris but only 426 came forward to register as voters. “During my campaign, I met some 800 people and nearly all of them talked about how futile it was to participate in the polling process,” Al Kuwari said.
This is true of almost all the 29 constituencies spread across the country, 26 of which go to polls today, as in three (Numbers 1, 27 and 28) there is only one candidate each.
In the fray are a total of 114 candidates, five of them women, as many who figured on the original list of contestants early last month, have withdrawn their candidature and their names will be displayed prominently inside polling booths today so that people don’t vote for them.
There are more than 21,000 registered voters and roughly half of them are women.
In the first election to the CMC held in March 1999, there were six women candidates but none was elected. The first woman to be picked as CMC member was Sheikha Al Jefairi, representing Old Airport ward (No 8) and she won unchallenged in the 2003 election for the 2nd term of Qatar’s only elected body, which has a four-year tenure.
“I hope to win this time,” says Fatima Al Kuwari who challenged Al Jefairi in the last CMC election from the Old Airport area, and
Al Kuwari is fighting from constituency number 9 (Al Thumama 46/47 and Mesaimeer) this time, with a sole male rival challenging her. He was a member of the 3rd term of the CMC (2007-11).
Jefairi is being challenged by male rivals in her Old Airport area constituency which, after re-demarcation includes Najma, Al Mansoora and Nuaija neighbourhoods.
Polling begins at 8am and ends at 5pm with a 30-minute recess for lunch and prayers.
Results will be out soon after and will be compiled for all the 29 wards by the central poll supervisory committee later in the evening.
For at least two of the five women candidates this newspaper spoke to on the eve of the election, the main issues are helping limited-income Qatari families supplant their earnings, families being urged not to send their young daughters to school with expatriate domestic drivers and small children not being left in the care of maids.
“There are crèches so working parents must leave their children in their care,” said Al Kuwari.
She said she will coordinate with state agencies to encourage limited-income families to take to tailoring and cooking and marketing their products.
Fatima Al Ghazal, contesting from constituency number 10 (which includes Abu Hamour, Al Mamoura and the central markets), is pitted against five rivals, all of them men.
In her constituency there are 686 registered voters and she feels confident of victory. According to her, though, people actually want to vote for women but tribal loyalties prevent them from doing so.
“Every voter I met said he or she would vote for me,” Al Ghazal told this newspaper. So, men having reservations against women, is not the main issue. “Men actually appreciate women as candidates.”
Tribal loyalties strongly influence the voting pattern and that may cause a woman to lose, she hinted.
She shares Al Kuwari’s view that many people are not keen to take part in the electoral process because of the fact that the CMC remains a civic body with no executive powers.
Al Ghazal’s poll manifesto is to additionally help Qatari divorcees and widows with children to be financially well-off and independent.
For most of the 109 male candidates, development projects in their respective constituencies are the main poll plank but voters are pooh-poohing them since those projects are launched by the government.
THE PENINSULA
The Peninsula
