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10/16/24, 11:12 AM Qatar to hold referendum on measure to abandon legislative elections - World - Dunya News
"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 what he called 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 U.S., has been seeking to mediate a ceasefire in the conflict in Gaza.

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