October 28, 2007	Sunday	Shawwal 15, 1428

MUSCAT, Oct 27: Omanis voted on Saturday for the 84 members of a consultative council amid some calls in the pro-Western Gulf monarchy for the advisory body to be given more power.

A total of 388,683 citizens had registered to vote in Oman’s 61 provinces, where 102 polling stations were to close at 7pm (1500 GMT). The results were due later in the day.

An AFP photographer at one polling station in the capital Muscat said a large number of people had turned out, including many women.

Twenty-one women are among 631 candidates vying for seats on the Majlis ash-Shura, or Consultative Council, in only the second election open to all citizens over 21.

State television showed long lines of men and women queuing outside polling stations around the country.

Omani men wearing traditional white robes with daggers tucked under their belts were shown placing their completed voting forms in ballot boxes.

Just one in four of Oman’s population had the vote before the franchise was expanded in the 2003 polls.The advisory council was created in 1991, and three years later Oman became the first conservative Muslim Gulf Arab state to give women the right to vote and run for public office. The outgoing council has two female members.

Interior Minister Saud bin Ibrahim al-Busaidi earlier stressed the need for electoral transparency, telling state television the results would be made clear to everyone because “this is what democracy is all about”. Omanis say they are generally satisfied with the council despite its limited powers, echoing the line of their ruler Sultan Qaboos that Oman should not mindlessly follow other countries in setting the pace of democratisation.

Qaboos announced the impending establishment of the council in November 1990, at the height of the Gulf crisis sparked by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August that year.

He stressed at the time that while Oman should be “open to the experiences of other states”, it should “not imitate for the sake of imitating.” The Majlis ash-Shura, which has a four-year term, can question ministers and advises the government on economic and social issues. But it has no legislative power and no say in defence, internal security or foreign policy.—AFP