Emirati women to reach height of empowerment
- 21 Aug 2019
Emirati women will scale the peak of their empowerment journey during the FNC Elections 2019 to be held in October, by achieving 50 per cent representation in parliament.
This is in line with the implementation of Resolution No. 01 of 2019 issued by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on raising the representation of women in the FNC to 50 per cent.
In the following report, the Emirates News Agency, WAM, monitors the main milestones in the empowerment of Emirati women in the parliamentary field.
The Women’s Empowerment programme launched by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa in 2005 represented a significant milestone in the history of Emirati women, and in 2006, Emirati women participated in the first FNC elections as voters and candidates.
During the first election, Dr Amal Qubaisi, the current FNC Speaker, won a seat in the FNC elections and eight other women were appointed in the parliament, with women representation in the FNC being 22 per cent.
The 2006 voter list comprised around 1,000 women from 6,595 voters and 65 women were FNC member candidates from a total of 465 candidates, with a rate of 14.25 per cent.
During the second election in 2011, women accounted for 46 per cent of the total number of voters, while 85 women ran for elections. After the announcement of the election results, women maintained a 22 per cent rate of representation in parliament.
During the 2015 election, women voters accounted for 48 per cent of the total of 224,281 voters.
The decree of the formation of the FNC in its 16th legislative chapter in November 2015 comprised nine women, and one of them won a seat in the elections, while the rest were appointed as members. One of them then went on to be appointed as the Minister of State for the Federal National Council Affairs.
The appointment of Dr Amal Abdullah Al Qubaisi as the FNC Speaker in the 16th legislative chapter represented a historic step by the UAE, as she was the first woman in the Arab region and the Middle East to chair a parliamentary organisation.
In the 2019 election, women comprised 170,967 voters, accounting for 50.62 per cent of the total number of voters at 337,738.
The numbers of voters included 101,549 voters in Abu Dhabi, including 52,470 women, with a percentage of 51.67, and 60,772 voters in Dubai, including 30,879 women, with a percentage of 50.81.
In Sharjah, the voter list included 32,856 women from a total of 64,293 voters at 51.10 per cent, while in Ajman, the total number of voters amounted to 10,165, including 4,641 women at 45.66 per cent.
In Umm Al Qaiwain, the total number of voters amounted to 6,653, including 3,405 women at 51.18 per cent. In Ras Al Khaimah, the total number of voters amounted to 55,289 including 27,218 women at 49.23 per cent, and in Fujairah, women voters amounted to 19,498 from a total of 39,017 voters at 49.97 per cent.
The third day for the registration of applications for the Federal National Council, FNC, elections saw 84 applications, taking the figure to 372 in three days, including 133 from women.
The total number of applications in Abu Dhabi by the end of the third day reached 110. Dubai saw 53, while Sharjah received 94. A total of 16 applications were submitted in Ajman, 21 in Umm Al Qaiwain, 37 in Ras Al Khaimah, and 41 in Fujairah.
On the third day, Abu Dhabi saw 24 applications, Dubai and Sharjah saw 20 each, Ajman received six, Umm Al Qaiwain and Ras Al Khaimah saw four each, and Fujairah saw six applications.
The number of applications filed by females on the third day amounted to eight in Abu Dhabi and nine in Dubai. Five applications for women were registered in Sharjah, one in Ajman, one in Umm Al Qaiwain, two in Ras Al Khaimah, and four in Fujairah.
The nine registration centres in the UAE will continue to receive applications for registration in the FNC 2019 elections until Thursday, 22nd August, 2019.
According to the schedule for the FNC 2019 elections, the NEC will announce the preliminary list of candidates on 25th August, 2019. The final list will be announced on 3rd September, 2019, while campaigning will begin from 8th September, 2019, and continue for 27 days.
WAM