Ibrahim Al-Khazen / Anatolia
The early voting process began in the UAE on Wednesday in the Federal National Council (consultative legislative) elections, in which 298 candidates are competing for 20 seats.
The National Elections Committee announced the opening of early voting in the 2023 Federal National Council elections, according to what was reported by the official Emirati news agency, WAM.
The “early voting” system was approved for the first time in the UAE in the 2015 elections, with the aim of “providing voters with the opportunity to cast their votes, especially for those who have conditions that prevent them from performing their electoral duty on the main election day, which will be in these elections next Saturday,” according to WAM.
The committee indicated that voting in the elections will be hybrid, via the “Share for the Emirates” application, the committee’s website, or through 9 election centers distributed across all the emirates (7 in number).
The UAE is adopting “hybrid voting”, which is a system that combines voting in electoral centers and remote voting via the Internet.
According to the electronic portal of the UAE government, the Federal National Council is the fourth authority in the country and the parliamentary body that represents the people. It plays an advisory role and consists of 40 members, 20 of whom are elected and the rest are appointed.
The Emirates News Agency reported that 298 candidates are competing in these elections, in which early voting continues on Wednesday and Thursday, with Friday allocated for remote voting, while next Saturday will be the main election day via remote voting or in polling stations.
398,879 voters are entitled to vote, according to the local newspaper “Emirates Al-Youm”.
The term of membership of the Federal National Council is four years, and the last elections for the Council were held in 2019.
The Council is concerned with discussing laws, expressing opinions on treaties and agreements, making recommendations, and directing questions to the government.
The statistics for the 2015 and 2019 elections, respectively, saw 47.58 and 48.8 percent of the total voters voting, according to official information.
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