The MoI conducts an interactive session on Shura council election regulations

Aspiring candidates participated in an interactive session yesterday with the Supervisory Committee for the Shura Council elections to learn about the legal procedures linked to election campaigns and their requirements.

The candidates attended the event in the Ministry of Interior’s main headquarters. In his opening remarks, Brigadier Salem Saqr Al Muraikhi, Vice-Chairman of Supervisory Committee for the Shura Council Elections, expressed the committee’s desire to offer all facilities to candidates and voters so that the elections may be conducted flawlessly. According to Al Muraikhi, His Excellency The Prime Minister and The Minister of Interior have stressed that it is the committee’s responsibility to answer the candidates’ questions, listen to them and clarify all their doubts.

When it comes to the election process itself, Brigadier Al Muraikhi said that each electoral district has an “Election Committee” that is chaired by a Supreme Judicial Council-selected judge and includes representatives from the Ministries of Interior and Justice.

He added that this committee is in charge of performing polling processes, tallying votes, and announcing results at the district headquarters. It is not permitted to delegate or allow anyone else to vote, and each voter must use his or her right to vote alone at the electoral headquarters since it is a personal right.

According to Brigadier Abdullah Khalifa Al-Muftah, the supervisory committee’s head of media, the election campaign time would begin following the release of the final list of candidates and will conclude twenty-four hours before voting begins. Brigadier General Al Muftah emphasised that a candidate’s obligations under Article 23 include respecting other’s freedom of expression, maintaining national unity, maintaining society’s security and refraining from any electoral propaganda that deceives voters.