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UAE orders "electoral silence" on candidates ahead of elections

Xinhua, October 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

The National Election Committee (NEC) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced on Wednesday to impose "electoral silence" on candidates to avoid heated election campaigns from Thursday to Saturday, state news agency WAM reported.

The NEC has urged all 329 candidates and their representatives for the Federal National Council (FNC) as well as media to refrain from any kind of election campaigns during the 48 hours until Saturday -- the election day.

Tariq Hilal Lootah, Undersecretary of the Ministry of State for FNC Affairs and Chairman of the Election Management Committee, said the period of "electoral silence" will leave enough time for voters to decide their choices.

"The NEC has followed the election campaign of all the candidates, which highlighted the keen interest of the UAE citizens to find appropriate solutions to issues of concerns in society," Lootah said.

The voting for the FNC elections will start from Saturday at 36 polling centers across all the seven emirates of the UAE.

Since 2006, half of the FNC members are elected while the other half is appointed.

In the last elections in 2011, around 130,000 Emirati citizens were eligible to vote, while more than 224,000 this year are eligible to exercise their franchise on the election day. Endit