Ras Al Khaimah: At the indoor sports hall of the Higher Colleges of Technology in Ras Al Khaimah, citizens cast their ballot for the Federal National Council Election on Saturday.
The sports hall, with its basketball boards raised towards the ceiling and its tiered seats pulled back and draped, was used as a polling station.
Metal detectors were set up at the entrance, leading the way to polling booths.
Over 20 touch screens were on hand for citizens to cast their votes and were lined along one end of the hall.
According to a number of voters, the entire process took no more than five minutes.
There were a total of five polling centres around the emirate: Expo Centre; Emirates Identity Authority Building (behind Ras Al Khaimah Police HQ); Higher Colleges of Technology for Women; Algail Youth Centre; and Emirates Identity Authority Building — Al Rams.
By noon on Saturday, almost 8,000 voters had exercised their franchise in Ras Al Khaimah since the early voting period began last week, Dr Andul Rahman Al Shaer, director of the voting centre at the Higher Colleges of Technology Women’s Campus, said.
“Thankfully everything is going quite smoothly,” he said. “We haven’t experienced any technical difficulties, and since the majority have already cast their ballot last week, the turnout today is manageable.”
“We’re seeing less people here than we did last week. A large number of citizens in Ras Al Khaimah have already cast their vote during the early voting process.”
Some of the candidates were waiting at the polling stations, eager to hear the election results, which will be announced on Saturday evening.
Taleb Al Habsi, who was among the first to arrive at the Higher Colleges of Technology for Women to cast his ballot on Saturday, said: “I’m actually surprised how little time it took for me to cast my ballot, I haven’t been here for more than 10 minutes. It was a great idea for the organising committee to hold the early elections, preventing queues and long waiting times.”
At the Higher College of Technology, FNC candidate Abdullah Al Shehi told Gulf News that he wasn’t at all nervous about the election results.
“The beauty of democracy is that it advocates the choice of the people,” he said. “I’ll be content with the results even if I’m not among those who win.”
Al Shehi said that if he is elected, he will do his part to fulfil the country’s 2021 vision.
“We can’t look at the UAE as separate emirates,” he said. “We are after all working as one ship, from the leadership to the individual, we all need to do our part to steer this great ship forward and make the UAE among the best countries in the world.”
Umm Omar said she had already cast her vote last week but came again so her husband could vote.
“I came with my children on Tuesday,” the mother of two said. “I decided to come with my husband today to show my support.”
