Page 58 - MFNCA PR REPORT - OCTOBER 2024

"The Shura Council is not a representative parliament in a democratic system,
and its status and powers will not be affected whether its members are chosen

by election or appointment" Sheikh Tamim said in his annual speech to open
the council's session.

The council will review the draft amendments and put them to a referendum,
Sheikh Tamim said.

The referendum results will be binding, a Qatari official told Reuters.

Qatar's first legislative election was approved in a 2003 constitutional
referendum but did not take place until 2021.

Members of the Al Murrah tribe, one of the Gulf's largest Bedouin groups with
roots tracing back to eastern Saudi Arabia, protested the electoral law that

bars Qataris whose family was not present in Qatar before 1930 from voting.

Sheikh Tamim on Tuesday said that Qatar sought to avoid the tensions
between families and tribes that the electoral process had sparked.

The Shura Council has legislative authority and approves general state policies
and the budget, but has no say in the setting of defence, security, economic
and investment policy for the small but wealthy gas producer, which bans

political parties.

In Tuesday's speech, Sheikh Tamim also said Israel deliberately chose to
expand its "aggression" to implement pre-planned schemes in the West Bank
and Lebanon.

Israel had done so "because it sees that the scope for that is available," he
said.

Qatar, along with Egypt and the US, has been seeking to mediate a ceasefire in

the conflict in Gaza.

(Reuters)

https://www.newarab.com/news/qatar-hold-referendum-abandoning-legislative-elections