Al Maawali re-elected as Oman's Majlis Al Shura Chairman

Muscat: Khalid bin Hilal Al Ma'awali, was re-elected as the chairman of Majlis Al Shura for the third consecutive term on Sunday.

The election was held in response to an invitation from His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said to Majlis Al Shura on Sunday for holding an extraordinary session for the oath taking of the newly elected chairman and two deputies in accordance of the provision of Article 58 of the Basic Law of the State.

Al Ma'awali got 47 out of the 86 votes. Six other candidates were in the fray for the chairmanship of the Shura Council. Those candidates are Hassan Saeed Kashoob, Yaqoob Al Harthi, Rashid Al Shamsi, Sulaim Al Hakmani, Hilal Al Sarmi and Yaqoob Al Rahbi.

Talking to Al Shabiba, the sister publication of Times of Oman, Al Ma'awali said:“I would like to thank God first and Shura members for putting the trust in me to be their chairman. We are here to serve this country with unity.”

He added: “We hope to serve this nation during this term under the framework of the basic law of the state and the legislative laws of Shura Council.”

Last week, the Ministry of Interior had announced the results of the Shura Council elections. The results saw 84 men and two women getting elected to the Majlis Al Shura for the ninth term. According to data from the Ministry of Interior, 349,680 people participated in voting, out of 713,335 registered voters.



The ministry statistics show that 52.7 per cent of voters were males and 47.3 per cent being women.. The 110 polling centres witnessed huge turnout turn out of voters, prompting the election commission to extend the voting period to 9pm.

There were a total of 40 female and 597 male candidates competing for 86 seats. Members of the Shura Council are elected for a period of four years.