Qatar passes referendum, replaces Shura Council elections with appointments, interior minister says

DOHA (Reuters) – Qatar’s referendum on a set of constitutional amendments passed with a 90.6% approval of the valid votes, replacing legislative elections for the Shura Council with appointed roles, the Gulf Arab state’s interior minister said early on Wednesday.

Qatar held its first ever elections in 2021 to choose two-thirds of the members of the advisory Shura Council. The elections sparked rare tribal tensions in Qatar after some members of a main Bedouin tribe found themselves ineligible to vote in the poll.

“Qataris celebrated today the fruits of what the forefathers planted … by participating in the general referendum on the draft constitutional amendments to the country’s permanent constitution,” Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said on X following the results.

Qatar’s first legislative election was approved in a 2003 constitutional referendum, but did not take place until 2021.

The Shura Council has legislative authority and approves general state policies and the budget, but has no say in the setting of defence, security, economic and investment policy for the small but wealthy gas producer, which bans political parties.

(Reporting by Enas Alashray and Adam Makary; Editing by Chris Reese and Lincoln Feast.)