DOHA: Elections to the fifth term of the 29-member Central Municipal Council (CMC) will be held in May next year. The body, which has a four-year term, was first elected in
early 1999.
Senior Interior Ministry officials told reporters yesterday that voters need to register afresh. The old voter list is being cancelled.
For registration, eligible voters should produce their ID card in person at the registration office to be set up in all constituencies.
A Ministry of Interior working group has been set up to make preparations for the election. Members of the group including the Director of Legal Affairs Department at the Ministry of Interior, Brigadier Salim Saqar Al Merikhi, who is also the chairman of the working group, addressed a press conference yesterday. Other members of the working group are Assistant Director of General Directorate of Information System at the Ministry, Brigadier Abdul Rahman Al Maliki, Director of Public Relations Department Colonel Abdullah Khalifa Al Muftah and Captain Mubarak Ali Majid from the Election Department of the Ministry.
The preparations for the elections will start in January.
Brigadier Salim Saqr Al Merikhi said that the 29 constituencies of the CMC were demarcated in 1998. He said that massive urban development since then had changed the demography in many constituencies.
Keeping in view the population of Qataris in the changed scenario, the constituencies have been recently demarcated. New urban areas have sprung up and they needed to be brought within the purview of the CMC constituencies.
The Interior Ministry had formed a committee to study the constituencies. This study was based on three principles — the first of which was changing of the constituencies according to the Qatari population and density and perceptions of its future. Second, taking into account the nature of the representation in the Council so that it would reflect the different towns and villages in different regions. Third, taking into account the social constitution of the constituencies.
The CMC law stipulates that the Council shall be directly elected in accordance with a system for which a decree is issued.
The Committee has sought help from the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning and the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics for the demarcation of the CMC wards.
The Peninsula
