The first ever elections in the United Arab Emirates were held Saturday to mark a historic day in two emirates where members of the electoral college in Abu Dhabi and Fujairah were casting their votes to elect 6 members for the Federal National Council (FNC).
The FNC process has been launched by UAE President Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan to boost wider popular participation in the political process, WAM reported. FNC elections in the other five emirates are scheduled for later this month.
1677 electoral college members from the emirate of Abu Dhabi were picking their 4 favourite representatives to the FNC while 35 candidates in Fujairah were competing to win 2 seats in the 40-member FNC, an advisory council with half of its members are directly appointed by rulers of the 7 emirates.
A total of 6678 members of the electoral college in all the 7 emirates will be casting their votes to pick the other 20 members of FNC.
