Ahmed Shaaban
Although only a few democracies give voters the right to reject all the election candidates and opt for a 'None of the above / blank vote' option, the UAE is one of the few select countries that allows its voters to indicate disapproval of all the candidates. Other countries that give their citizens this liberty include France, Brazil, India, US, Spain, Belgium and Finland.
While 79,159 voters UAE nationals cast their ballots on the election day, some decided to vote for none of the 330 candidates. They preferred to click 'Refrain from voting' option because they did not believe in the electoral programmes of the FNC hopefuls which they described as 'unrealistic' and not in line with the voters' demands.
An Emirati man from Al Rams area, Rashid Saeed, said most of the agendas sounded good, but cannot be realistically implemented. "A successful candidate needs to truly voice people's concerns in the local community."
Another Emirati Salem Al Qasim, from Al Daqdaqa area, said most of the programmes are nothing but copies of each other. "They are almost identical and I know they cannot be implemented."
Abdurrahman Al Shaer, head of the polling centre at the Higher Colleges of Technology in Ras Al Khaimah, said voters are free to choose the candidate they favour or none at all. "It is important for all voters to participate whether they pick one or none."
Abdullah Al Rashid, an Emirati man at Shaml area, said he was so keen to participate in the elections, however he said: "All of the 41 candidates in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah have not touched upon the real problems of the local community."
People here are in dire need of a new well-equipped hospital, he added. "The infrastructure at some residential areas needs a complete overhauling."
Emirati national from Al Maamura area, Mustafa Saeed, said he postponed voting till the final day. "I wanted to go through the electoral programmes of all candidates, but none of them impressed me, and so I voted for none."
Meanwhile, some voters here insisted on voting for the 40-year-old candidate Abdul Aziz Ahmed Tafuf Al Shehi who died of a heart attack while sleeping home at 6.30am on Saturday.
Abdullah Hammad, cousin of the Al Shehi, said the deceased, a retired conscript of the UAE armed forces, was suffering from diabetes for years, and used to work for Al Taif Company in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.
"My cousin, who has four children, was fine when I left him, but I got a call from his wife around 7am in which she told me that she tried hard to wake him up, but to no avail. He was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead."
Many of the voters told me that they came to vote for Al Shehi although they knew he was dead, he added. "They said we shall remain loyal to Al Shehi as we believed in his agenda and wanted to see him in the Council."
In a tweet on Saturday, well-known Emirati columnist Sultan Saud Al Qassemi said: "I don't know whether to vote for my brothers' choice, a female candidate (my choice) or vote "none of the above."
Fuente: http://khaleejtimes.com/nation/government/no-one-impressed-meso-i-chose-...
