Number of women contesting Shura Council seats doubles

Energy Monday 08/July/2019 20:33 PM
By: Times News Service
Number of women contesting Shura Council seats doubles

Muscat: The number of women candidates looking to be elected to the Shura Council has doubled, compared to the previous term, which began in 2015.
This year, there are 43 female candidates and 724 male candidates vying for seats in the Shura Council, according to statistics issued by the Ministry of Interior. In 2015 there were just 20 female candidates.
Sanna Al Maashari, a member of the Municipal Council and a female candidate for this year’s Shura Council, told Times of Oman that her aim of joining the Council was to serve Al Amerat, the Wilayat she represents.
“I decided to be a candidate in this Shura Council in order to complete what I started in the Municipal Council,” Al Maashari said.
Describing her strategy to get a seat on the Shura Council, Al Maashari revealed, “I will be more active on social media and I will go out for field visits in Al Amerat.”
Social media
When Al Maashari was asked about why she didn’t post more often on social media channels such as Twitter, she said: “People on Twitter do not encourage candidates to show our work to them. I am planning to put together a separate team that will be responsible for my social accounts during the Shura Council nomination period”
The 767 candidates of this year’s Shura Council term include 32 candidates who have PhDs, 92 with MA degrees, 249 have BA degrees, 74 have higher diplomas, and 321 have general education diplomas.
The Shura Council comprises 85 elected members representing all the Wilayats of the Sultanate. The members of the Council are elected every four years.
Population
The number of the members representing a Wilayat depends on the density of population of each Wilayat. A Wilayat whose population is less than 30,000 on the date of the opening of the candidacy of the Shura Council hopeful from that Wilayat is represented by one member while the Wilayat whose population exceeds that is represented by two members, according to the election regulations of the Shura Council.
Oman’s Shura Council was established in 1991 to replace the Consultative State Council, which lasted from 1981 until 1991.
Voting for Shura Council candidates is much easier this year because of the presence of the electronic voting system, called “Your voice”.