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10/16/24, 11:11 AM Qatar to vote on abandoning legislative elections | AP News
The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment over the announcement by
Qatar, home to the massive Al-Udeid Air Base hosting the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s
Central Command.

Governance by consensus is something Gulf rulers attempt to maintain even today even as some sit
atop vast sums of oil and gas wealth that have transformed their countries.

Sheikh Tamim alluded to that in his speech Tuesday, maintaining that “the Shura Council is not a
representative parliament in a democratic system.”

“In Qatar, the people and the government have a direct civic relationship, and there are recognized
norms and mechanisms for direct communication between the people and the governance,” he said.

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But it’s not just Qatar rolling back on its experiment in representational government. In May, the ruler
of oil-rich Kuwait dissolved his country’s parliament for as much as four years. While the Kuwaiti
parliament had struggled, it represented the Gulf Arab state’s most free-wheeling legislative body
and could challenge the country’s rulers.

Over a decade on from the 2011 Arab Spring protests, “we’ve seen this kind of retreat coming for
some time,” said Kristin Smith Diwan, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in
Washington.

“It’s important to recognize there has been a debate on this and there was a popular push from
below for more representation and accountability,” Diwan said. “But it seems like that moment has
passed.”

JON GAMBRELL

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