Qataris decide whether to end limited voting for legislative seats in shadow of US election

Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Qatar has opened a snap poll to decide whether to end its limited voting for legislative seats. The measure is likely to pass and end its short-lived experiment in electing members of the country’s advisory Shura Council. The vote marks yet another rollback in the hereditarily ruled Gulf Arab states of halting steps to embrace representational rule following efforts by the United States to push harder for democratic reforms in the Middle East after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Hopes for democracy in the region also rose in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring.