In what local media
described as a “historic referendum” with a “huge turnout”, over 90% of
Qatari citizens voted to abolish legislative elections and instead
entrust the Emir with selecting members of the Shura Council, marking
the end of a short democratic experiment [photo credit: Oussama
Zerrougui / The Peninsula]
Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani seizing on the divisions the
2021 election had caused introduced his call for a referendum on
constitutional amendments at the conclusion of his Shura Council speech
on 15 October. Much of the speech was taken up with economic affairs
with Tamim presenting a rosy picture post the expected slippage from the
huge economic boost that hosting the FIFA World Cup had delivered.
Inflation was down, public debt reduced, spending policy balanced and
amongst other initiatives a green sovereign fund was in the process of
being inaugurated.
In a nod to GCC solidarity and given that Qatar holds the presidency
of the current session of the bloc Tamim said “we have spared no effort
along with our brothers, the leaders of the Cooperation Council’s
countries, to support our Gulf march and push forward joint action, in a
way that fulfills the aspirations of our peoples.”
He spoke forcefully and much more directly about the desperate
situation of the Palestinian people and he denounced the Israeli
invasion of Lebanon:
The Palestinian cause remains at the forefront of our priorities.
A year has passed since the beginning of the brutal aggression against
our kindreds in Gaza and the West Bank; a year of destruction and
genocide under the continued inactivity and failure of the international
community to stop this ugly war that breached all values that unite
humanity, as well as international conventions, norms, and religious
canons.
Israel, which is taking advantage of the international
community’s inaction, the paralysis of its institutions and the
frustration of its resolutions in order to implement dangerous
settlement plans in the West Bank, has embroiled (sic) in expanding its
aggression to Lebanon.
It was language that no other GCC state has come close to matching
and it underlined that despite Tamim’s protestations of brotherly love
divisions remain entrenched particularly in the field of foreign policy
and nowhere more clearly than in how fellow members have responded or
failed to respond to Israel’s war of aggression.
Then came the coup de grace to Qatar’s very limited democracy
experiment. Without debate or a vote Tamim brusquely set aside any
semblance of authority that the Shura Council in theory, if not in
practice, might have had. The key constitutional amendment that the
referendum was designed to deliver related to Article 77. No longer
would two thirds of the Shura members be elected. All 45 will be
appointed by the emir. Granting voting rights to naturalised citizens as
the carrot and the referendum as the velvet stick Tamim said: “two
goals incorporate the constitutional and legislative amendments:
ensuring the unity of the people on the one hand, and equal citizenship
in terms of rights and duties on the other.”
The referendum was held at speed and without either debate in the
Shura or any serious discussion in the public domain. The overwhelming
yes vote was portrayed
in the local media as a “national duty” that the emir had called on his
people to act upon. As one voter put it “I would like to thank Amir H H
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, for giving the chance for his people
to vote on some of the amendments to the constitutional articles.” With a
massive yes vote Qataris willingly and gladly, if local reports are
correct, gave up their right to vote for the Shura Council.
With Qatar’s referendum decision, Kuwait’s parliament dissolved,
Bahrain’s a shell of what it was from the early 2000s to 2011 and other
GCC member states having toothless Shura Councils - all in a
perfunctory nod to prior Western expectations - the GCC‘s ruling
families so often disunited in other matters have reached consensus that
they no longer need to pay any heed to delivering performative
democracy gestures to their Western friends and allies.
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