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10/16/24, 11:11 AM Qatar to vote on abandoning legislative elections | AP News
WORLD NEWS
Qatar’s ruler says his nation will vote on abandoning legislative elections after just one poll

FILE - Qatar’s ruling emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 24,
2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

BY JON GAMBRELL
Updated 6:52 PM GMT+4, October 15,
2024

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Qatar’s ruling emir said Tuesday his small, energy-rich nation
will hold a referendum on ending a short-lived experiment in electing members of the country’s
advisory Shura Council.
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Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani offered no immediate timeline for the referendum in an annual
address to the Shura Council, which drafts laws, approves state budgets, debates major issues and
provides advice to the ruler. The body does not have sway over matters of defense, security and the
economy.

However, it marks yet another rollback in the hereditarily ruled Gulf Arab states in its halting steps to
embrace representational rule, however tentative, following efforts by the United States to push
harder for democratic reforms in the Middle East after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and hopes for
democracy in the region rose in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring.

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