Studies center: Politics is prohibited for parliamentary elections candidates in UAE
The Emirates Center for Media Studies and Studies (EMAC) highlighted the arbitrary ban imposed by the UAE system on the candidates of the Federal National Council (FNC) elections not to speak of with political issues.
Parliamentary elections have different names, including a “political wedding” and democracy epic, as evidence that elections and awareness of the political culture of candidates and voters, except in the UAE in the “elections” of the Federal National Council prohibits candidates for modern politics!
Many candidates’ programs and promises point to things outside the context of the need for society rather than calling for full powers for the National Assembly, only a promise to combat spinsterhood, another candidate proposes polygamy as a solution to spinsterhood, vowing to press for it.
Another candidate appears to deliver her promise and has stolen the same words and even letters from another candidate in Oman!
Issues of national politics are originally the pillar of candidates’ electoral programs and their presentation is an electoral necessity. Otherwise, not running for parliament, but for membership in a charity or anti-spinster fund. It is bad for candidates to become concerned at this level, but indicates disregard by organized authority. It seems that candidates are forced to resort to these strange ideas as a result of the prohibition of talking about national and political issues.
In the midst of this controversy, a prominent voice is announced announcing his withdrawal from the elections scheduled for early October, Ghaith Abdullah, who announced his withdrawal after preventing him from speaking on national and political issues.
Ghaith Abdullah said in his letter of withdrawal: “I have applied for the elections out of the representation of an Emirati generation willing to discuss national and political issues, and future generations need to be heard in the fateful political social issues, such as freedom to participate in the political process and empowerment and freedom of expression and constructive criticism out of concern for the future of their homeland with the least constraints I faced during my election campaign.
The national and political awareness of the candidate “Ghaith Abdullah” is an expression of the young generation of the UAE, which seeks participation and freedom of expression as part of a broad concern for the future of the state, as politics takes the bulk of the administration of the country and determines attitudes.
This is certainly reflected in the collective “political culture” of Emiratis, whose authorities refuse to participate in political life or express their views freely without being subjected to arrest, torture and political trials.
In 2011, political awareness was widespread and the authorities did not realize it. Hundreds of UAE nationals filed a petition for reforms to the National Assembly and gave it wide constitutional powers. The response was a campaign of arrests only weeks later.
Since that time (2011), the FNC has been far from discussing this campaign of arrests, as well as from notorious laws targeting freedom of opinion and expression, including cybercrime and counterterrorism laws.
The prohibition of political talk of candidates in the National Assembly elections shows how fragile the National Assembly is and even control of what the candidates say is controlled, not as representative of the people and the conscious generation of the UAE as it is representative of the Authority and its ability to improve reputation.
