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Significance
The emir in November 2019 ordered work to begin on long-delayed legislative polls for the Shura Council, requiring decisions on voting mechanisms and electoral districting. The move seems to have been an effort to burnish the country’s international image during the boycott by Arab neighbours, rather than a response to domestic demand.
Impacts
An elected Shura Council in Qatar could put pressure on Saudi Arabia, left the sole Gulf state without an elected national legislative body.
If political parties were also legalised, ideological blocs might be able to use the legislature to set policymaking agendas.
The Shura Council’s power to hold ministers to account might act as a drag on any fiscal reforms reducing subsidies to citizens.
Keywords:
Qatar,
ME/NAF,
Gulf states,
Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia,
politics,
social,
election,
ethnic,
family,
government,
legislation,
nationality,
foreign policy
© Oxford Analytica 2020. All rights reserved. This content contains general information about geopolitical, macroeconomic and social developments or (where stated) other matters. It does not contain advice or recommendations that may be relied on. Where links to external websites are provided, this does not indicate that Oxford Analytica or Emerald agree with, endorse or have checked for accuracy the contents of said sites.
2020
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