UAE | Government
NEC 'got no request for recount of FNC vote'
The only contestation of results of the Federal National Council elections, which concluded on Wednesday with polls in Sharjah, Ajman and Umm Al Quwain, was turned down yesterday.
- By Samir Salama, Bureau Chief
- Published: 23:36 May 3, 2009
- Image Credit: Gulf News
- Panel counters candidate's grounds for dispute.
Abu Dhabi: The only contestation of results of the Federal National Council elections, which concluded on Wednesday with polls in Sharjah, Ajman and Umm Al Quwain, was turned down yesterday.
However, the National Election Committee (NEC) did not receive any request to recount the votes, according to a statement released by the NEC yesterday. Candidate Abdul Hamid Al Kumaity from Ajman contested the results there through an e-mail to the NEC.
One ground for the contest was that voting in the emirate was delayed for half an hour due to a technical problem, which was not revealed to the electorate and whether it was a partial or total problem.
The Appeal Committee's response to this contest was that the voting in Ajman was extended for half an hour to compensate for the delay at the beginning of the process and that the Election Code does not stipulate that any such technical problem or its scope be relayed to the electorate.
Al Kumaity, who did not win a seat in the emirate, also disputed the results on the grounds that a technical requirement of an eight -second interval between each voter's choices, jeopardised the chances of many candidates.
Technical requirement
Each voter in the emirate was entitled to elect two candidates, but Al Kumaity said the technical requirement spoilt the second choice of each voter who failed to select it within eight seconds.
The Appeals Committee categorically denied that there was any technical requirement (time wise) and that all voters were able to elect freely taking their time. "On many occasions it took many voters more than 20 minutes to finish casting ballots," according to the statement.
Al Kumaity also disputed the results in the emirate saying that candidate Ahmad Abdullah Bin Galita, who won an FNC seat with 187 votes, influenced the results by his public post as a board member of Ajman's Housing Fund.
"The candidate paid a visit to the Polling Station for 10 minutes and left for a meeting of the board of directors of the Housing Fund after he told the electorate that he would distribute housing grants to members of the Electoral College," he said in his contest.
Al Kumaity said that many members of Ajman's Electoral College got their requests for the housing grants approved on the same day of the voting.
The Appeals Committee said the UAE's Constitution prohibits FNC members from occupying federal posts only and the candidate was a board member of a local authority.
"Housing assistance and grants are not decided by a member of the board of the Housing Fund, but by the entire board of directors. Moreover, these grants are given on the basis of requests duly submitted before the elections took place."
The Appeal Committee held its first meeting on Saturday in the presence of Mohammad Nakhira Al Daheri, Minister of Justice, Tariq Hilal Lootah, Secretary General of the FNC Affairs Ministry and Dr Saeed Al Gafli, Assistant Secretary General of the FNC Affairs Ministry.
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