Qatar to hold referendum to abandon Shura Council elections world news

From its point of view, Qatar viewed the 2021 vote as likely to increase tensions between tribes and families in the country, months after the end of a diplomatic crisis between Doha and the four Arab countries.

We are all one family in Qatar, Sheikh Tamim said, according to a transcript published by the state-run Qatar News Agency. Competition between candidates for membership in the Shura Council took place within families and tribes, and there are different points of view on the impact of this competition on our norms, traditions, as well as traditional social institutions and their coordination.

Amir adds: Competition takes on an identity-based nature that we are ill-equipped to manage, potentially complicating over time what we would prefer to avoid.

The country's electoral law distinguishes between natural-born and naturalized citizens of Qatar and prohibits the latter from participating in elections. Human Rights Watch described the system as discriminatory, excluding thousands of Qataris from running or voting. The disqualifications sparked small tribal protests that led to several arrests.

Qatar first introduced plans for legislative elections in its 2003 constitution, but authorities have repeatedly postponed the vote. The country finally voted to elect two-thirds of the Shura Council in October 2021, following a boycott of Qatar by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that tore apart the Gulf Arab states.

The vote also comes almost a year before Qatar hosts the 2022 FIFA World Cup, an event that has drawn intense scrutiny from the West, both regarding Doha's treatment of foreign workers and its governance. Qatar remains an important nation for the West because it welcomed the Taliban and helped in the chaotic NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and as a mediator in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and expansion into Lebanon.

Qatar, like other Gulf Arab states, is governed by a hereditary leader who has the final say on how the country is governed. Before the oil industry advanced into the Gulf and overthrew centuries of government, rulers were led by consensus among their people.

The United States began a push for democracy in the Middle East after the Cold War, while balancing its relationships with long-standing client states as it cultivated competition with the Soviet Union and support for Israel. This pressure intensified under then-President George W. Bush following the 9/11 attacks, which saw Gulf Arab states take tentative steps toward some form of representation.

The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment on the announcement from Qatar, which hosts the massive Al-Udeid Air Base, which hosts the forward headquarters of the U.S. military's Central Command.

Rule by consensus is something Gulf rulers still try to maintain today, even as some sit on top of the vast oil and gas wealth that has transformed their countries.

In his speech on Tuesday, Sheikh Tamim implied that the Shura Council is not a representative parliament in a democratic system.

In Qatar, there is a direct civil relationship between the people and the government, and there are accepted norms and procedures for direct communication between the people and the regime, he said.

But this is not just about retreating from Qatar’s experience of representative government. Last May, the ruler of oil-rich Kuwait dissolved his country's nearly four-year-old parliament. Although Kuwait's Parliament is in trouble, it represents the Gulf Arab state's freest legislature and could challenge the country's rulers.

More than a decade after the 2011 Arab Spring protests, we have been seeing a backlash of this kind for some time, said Christine Smith Diwan, senior resident scholar at the Gulf Arab States Institute in Washington.

It's important to recognize that there has been a debate on this issue and a popular push from below for more representation and accountability, Diwan said. But that moment seems to have passed.