The Federal National Council Election Timeline & Some Misconceptions

Article in brief: the author lists the dates for all the FNC election activities, and discusses few of the main misconceptions surrounding it in the community.

By the time you read this, the Federal National Council (FNC) registration phase would have finally ended. But as we all know, this is the first step towards political empowerment in the FNC. The registration for the candidacy ended on Thursday 20^th of August 2015 and on the 23^rd of the same month the initial list of candidates was announced. The timeline of the election process is precise and clear and the final list of the candidates has been confirmed and released.

There are more steps to be followed through the timeline announced by National Election Committee, via all means of media including social media:

• The committee’s announcement of nominations (13^th August 2015)
• Candidates’ registrations (16^th-20^th August 2015).
• The announcement of the initial eligible candidates’ list (23th August 2015)
• Presenting any objection against the candidates’ applications (24^th-26^th August).
• Objections committee’s reply on the objections (27^th August 2015)
• The announcement of the final list of candidates (31^st August 2015)
• The candidates campaigns period (6^th– 30^th September 2015)
• Final chance of candidacy withdrawals (14^th September 2015)
• The submission of candidates’ representatives or agents (14^th September 2015)
• Early voting at UAE embassies abroad (20^th and 21^st September 2015)
• Early voting inside the UAE (28^th-30^th September 2015)
• Electoral silence (1^st-2^nd October 2015)
• Official voting day, and Initial election results will be announced (3^rd October 2015)
• Appeals against the poll results (4^th-6^th October 2015)
• The committee’s reply to the appeals (7^th and 8^th October 2015)
• Final list of the 20 successful candidates announced (11^th October 2015) – if supplementary elections* are not required -.
• Supplementary elections (10^th October 2015)
• Initial poll results (10^th October 2015)
• Appeals against the supplementary election results (15^th October 2015)
• The approval of the final list of winning candidates.

* The supplementary elections are only needed when there is a tie between multiple candidates in one emirate, making the total number of elected candidates more than the number assigned for that emirate.

The early voting phase has already started at the embassies of the UAE and election centers. However, it does not mean that all voters fully understand what the FNC is all about. Therefore, so many misunderstandings and misconceptions have been circling around the community in regards to the FNC. The Emirati community is still new to what political empowerment is supposed to be about. This leads to the inability to choose the deserving candidate and sadly many members of our community end up refusing to vote for the rightful candidate.

One of the misconceptions that has been going on since 2006 is the idea that the FNC members receive extremely high monthly salary that goes up to AED 1,000,000 per month. This unbelievable monthly payment is simply not true, the actual monthly salary for the FNC members is AED 50,000. Another misconception that I have personally been hearing from different people of our community is about a reward given to the FNC members upon winning the poll. This alleged monetary reward was said to go between AED 1,000,000 to AED 5,000,000. The National Election Committee has made it clear through different newspapers that such monetary rewards do not exist.

Another issue our community faces is the inability to vote for candidates based on merit. Instead, people are voting based on friendships and relationships, without putting in consideration that there are better candidates to vote for. Some are actually forced to vote for specific candidates not because they find them to be the most deserving, but because they think elections may not be confidential. I have personally heard voters express their concerns about the confidentiality of the poll results and requested to see actual facts addressed through the UAE National Election Committee. However, questions have been raised to the committee via twitter and no response has come forth as of yet.

What I believe to be the most dangerous and most crucial misconception is the level of authority given to the members of the council. Some candidates have made it sound that they have more authority than they actually do by making promises they cannot fulfill. What many Emiratis don’t get is the fact that this is only the third term of an election based FNC. It is still a very new experience and in order for it to fulfill its actual role in political empowerment; it needs to go through the advisory phase it is in at the moment.

For more information the following websites can be visited:

• almajles.gov.ae
• https://www.uaenec.ae/