Low Turnout Marks Limited UAE Polls

Just over a quarter of voters selected by the rulers of the United Arab Emirates took part in the second-ever polls to elect half the country's advisory Federal National Council, results showed Sunday.

Only 35,877 voters voted on Saturday to elect 20 members of the Federal National Council, representing around 28 percent of some 129,000 Emirati citizens with the right to vote, National Election Committee figures showed.

The low turnout came after the government significantly increased the size of the electoral college from just 6,600 voters in the first polls in 2006, in line with a declared policy to gradually widen political participation.

Only one woman, out of some 85 female candidates across the country, won a seat, representing the emirate of Umm al-Qaiwain.

Sheikha Isa Ghanem Al Ari garnered 536 votes of a total 1,796 ballots cast in the small emirate where 3,285 citizens were named as voters.

In total, 450 candidates competed for the 20 seats. UAE rulers appoint the remainder of FNC members.

The federation of sheikhdoms does not apply universal suffrage. Instead, the rulers of the seven emirates draw up the lists of voters, and candidates must also come from those lists.

The council has no legislative powers and acts merely as an advisory board to the Federal Supreme Council, the country's highest governing body, made up of the emirates' rulers.

In addition to the capital Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the UAE comprises the emirates of Ajman, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Qaiwain.

Abu Dhabi and Dubai are assigned eight seats each in the FNC, compared with six each for Ras al-Khaimah and Sharjah and four each for the smaller emirates of Ajman, Fujairah and Umm al-Qaiwain.