Women candidates fail to break through in Qatar vote

Qatar wrapped up its first legislative polls on Oct. 2 with no women elected to a representative council that is seen as unlikely to alter the distribution of power in the emirate.

The vote was for 30 members of the 45-strong Shura Council, a body with limited powers that was previously appointed by the emir as an advisory chamber.

Male candidates were elected in all 30 of the seats up for election, the interior ministry's election committee reported, despite 28 women initially being cleared to run in the polls.

The results raise the prospect that the emir will use his 15 direct appointments to the council to right the imbalance.
It is not known when the appointments will be announced, or when the council will meet.

The final voter turnout was 63.5 percent according to officials, significantly higher than at 2019's municipal elections when fewer than 10 percent of voters cast ballots.

A provisional tally published by state television on Oct. 2 afternoon suggested one-third of approved candidates, some 101 contenders, had dropped out of the race by Oct. 2 afternoon.

However, the state-run Qatar News Agency later reported there was a total of 233 candidates.

It was unclear if those who had dropped out had formally withdrawn or called on their followers to back other candidates.

"Where candidates realized that they have no shot to win a seat, they decided to endorse other candidates," said King's College London associate professor Andreas Krieg.

Across the Gulf emirate, orderly queues of Qataris in national dress formed inside polling stations, mostly schools and sports halls, throughout the day.

In the 17th district, a chauffeur-driven Mercedes-Benz and a pearl white Rolls Royce SUV dropped...