A campaign banner of one of the candidates contesting in the CMC election displayed near a traffic intersection on the busy D-Ring road. Pic: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula
Doha: The election campaign for the sixth session of the Central Municipal Council (CMC) elections began in various municipalities with campaign banners and publicity billboards have been installed on the main roads and intersections.
The election campaign will continue for more than two weeks. “CMC candidates have to abide many regulations governing the election campaign, among these regulations are that the election campaign is strictly prohibited in places of worship, and educational institutions,” said Director of Public Relations at the Ministry of Interior, Brigadier Abdullah Khalifa Al Muftah, who is also the head of the elections media committee.
“The regulations also prohibit offending other candidates directly or indirectly; or stirring up sectarian or tribal strife among citizens or prejudice to personal matters,” he added while talking to Qatar TV.
To make their campaign successful, some candidates signed contracts with specialised election campaign runners to promote their programmes specially through social media. For voters who are not using social media, CMC candidates are visiting them directly to convince them about their election manifesto.
In this election, 94 candidates, including five female candidates are competing in 27 constituencies out of 29 constituencies as two constituencies have already been decided.
The Ministry of the Interior has urged, during a seminar organised earlier this week, candidates of the Central Municipal Council in its sixth session to adhere to the controls governing the election campaign, and not to launch the campaign until each candidate obtained the special permission of the Media Information Committee for the elections. The elections of the Central Municipal Council will be held on April 16, according to the Amiri decree issued in this regard.
The Central Municipal Council shall be competent to study the wishes or proposals submitted by the members of the Council on any matter that is involved in the fields of municipal and agricultural affairs, in addition to considering and expressing opinion on the municipal affairs referred to the Council by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment or other governmental bodies.
