2019 Emirati parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in the United Arab Emirates on 5 October 2019 to elect the half of the members of the Federal National Council. The elections took place through an electoral college, the membership of which was expanded from 224,279 in 2015 to 337,738 in 2019.[1]

Electoral system

The 40-member Federal National Council consists of 20 indirectly-elected members and 20 appointed members. The 20 elected members were elected by single non-transferable vote in seven electoral colleges based on the emirates: the colleges of Abu Dhabi and Dubai elects four members each, the colleges of Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah three each, and the colleges of Ajman, Fujairah and Umm al-Quwain two each.[2] Voters can vote for only one candidate in their emirate.[3] In December 2018 President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan issued a directive that half the members of the Council should be women.[4]

Under the constitution of the United Arab Emirates, "each emirate shall be free to determine the method of selecting the citizens representing it in the Federal National Council". The rulers of each emirate decides who will be able to vote;[5] the total number of voters has increased at each election, with an objective that all citizens will be able to vote in the future.[6]

On election day, 39 voting centers were opened in the UAE, nine of which had been open for early voting on 1–3 October. Overseas voters were able to vote in UAE embassies on 22–23 September.[7]

Campaign

A total of 479 candidates contested the elections.[8] As there were no political parties at the time of the elections, all candidates ran as independents.

Results

A total of 117,592 voters voted, giving a voter turnout of 34.81%. The number of votes cast increased by 48.5% compared to the 2015 elections.[9]

Seven of the 20 elected members were women,[10] although the sole incumbent elected female MP Naama al-Sharhan failed to win re-election in Ras al-Khaimah.[11] As such, 13 of the 20 appointed members were women in order to achieve gender parity.[10]

Party	Votes	%	Seats
Independents			20
Invalid/blank votes		–	–
Total	117,592		20
Registered voters/turnout	337,738	34.81	–
Source: The National

Elected members

Emirate	Elected members	Votes	Notes
Abu Dhabi	Suhail al-Affari	2,624
	Khalfan al-Shamsi	2,495
	Naema al-Mansouri	444
	Moaza al-Amri	370
Ajman	Ahmad Suwaidi	680
	Hind al-Olayli	114
Dubai	Hamad al-Rahoumi	1,517	Re-elected
	Osama al-Shafar	1,032
	Mariam Bin Thania	374
	Sarah Filknaz	333
Fujairah	Mohammed al-Yammahi	2,160	Re-elected
	Sabreen al-Yamahi	955
Ras al-Khaimah	Yousef al-Shihhi	2,569
	Saeed al-Abdi	1,649
	Ahmad al-Shihhi	1,501
Sharjah	Humaid al-Shamsi	1,227
	Adnan al-Hammadi	985
	Obaid al-Ghoul	947
Umm al-Quwain	Mohammed al-Kashef	919
	Athra Bin Rakkad	270
Source: The National

References

1. FNC candidate registration centres launched Gulf News, 7 August 2019
2. Electoral system IPU
3. Federal National Council elections: how to vote The National, 30 September 2019
4. Sheikh Khalifa: UAE's Federal National Council to be 50 per cent women The National, 8 December 2018
5. "البوابة الرسمية لحكومة الإمارات العربية المتحدة". www.government.ae. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
6. The Political System of the UAE Government of the United Arab Emirates
7. FNC election, everything you need to know Gulf News, 30 September 2019
8. The nation votes: residents head to polling stations for landmark FNC elections The National, 5 October 2019
9. "اللجنة الوطنية للانتخابات تعلن النتائج الأولية للفائزين في انتخابات المجلس الوطني الاتحادي 2019". UAE National Electoral Commission, 6 October 2019.
10. Newly elected members of Federal National Council revealed The National, 6 October 2019
11. Election results National Election Commission