No earthquakes in local politics as UAE elects new FNC, Omanis prepare to vote

With only one complaint presented to the Appeals Committee (it was rejected), the authorities declared voting above-board and the campaign a success for the UAE’s ‘gradualist’ progress towards a more ‘democratic’ polity. Local media described the first election in which half of the Federal National Council’s 40 members were elected as a triumph for President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan’s “political empowerment programme”. However, turnout was low – at 35.2% – even if it marked progress on 2011, when just 28% of those eligible voted.