By Ayman Adly
Staff Reporter
Central Municipal Council (CMC) members should be elected on the basis of merit and considerations like tribal loyalty or personal interest should not play a role in voting, a candidate for the upcoming elections has said.
The 29-member CMC has a tenure of four years. Only registered citizens can contest and vote.
Elections for a new house will be held on May 13. A total number of 130 candidates are in the fray for the 28 seats, as one of the candidates has already been declared elected unopposed.
Elections to the first CMC were held in 1999.
Tariq al-Sulaiti, who works in the oil and gas industry, is contesting the elections from Constituency No 11, which covers Ain Khalid, Abu Hamour, the Industrial Area and the surroundings. There are 10 more candidates who are trying to win the same seat. With such a considerable number of candidates in a limited area, al-Sulaiti, who is in his late 30s , places great confidence on the voters’ high level of awareness to choose the person who could represent them best.
Talking to Gulf Times, he said he had been actively campaigning in his constituency since he had announced his candidature. “I am very active in meeting people, going around and taking notes what needs to be done. I use social media to communicate with others as well as face to face meetings; mostly I use Twitter.”
Narrating the incident that spurred him to run , he said: “Coincidentally I was at the Q-Mart petrol station (near the Landmark) last year when the explosion took place. I took pictures of the scene and uploaded them on my Twitter account. After some time , I reached the Abu Hamour Petrol Station where I spotted some LNG cylinders placed behind a restaurant in a very unsafe manner. I took a photo and forwarded it to the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning, pointing the risk: the response was immediate and very positive.”
Al-Sulaiti, an engineer who holds a MBA from Hall University in the UK, felt that if he could achieve so much as a common citizen, he would be able to do more if he was a representative of the people.
Asked about the functions of the council, he said: “I don’t see a need for either executive or legislative powers for the council. As it is now, it is good. It depends on the approach of the CMC member. The system is designed to listen to the people’s needs, find a solution to it and communicate it to the authorities concerned , and then follow up the matter, all within a set time frame. In this way a CMC member can be very effective,” he pointed out.
He is totally opposed to the idea of allotting any quota for any specific group of people such as women or people with disability.
“It is not a physically demanding job, it is all about communication and attitude, if you are worthy and sincere and dedicated, people will choose you. Women in Qatar now have acquired a high status and they play an important role in the development of the country,” he stressed.
Talking about his plans, he said: “I will prepare a comprehensive database of all the contacts of the people of my constituency, communicate with them regularly through SMS and other means and most importantly meet them directly, may be some of them every week at key lounges. Besides, I am planning to hold a public meeting of all the voters in my constituency every six months to follow up on the progress of what need to be done and discuss with them future developments.”
In the meantime, he has big dreams and plans for improving the infrastructure and public facilities in the area, such as enforcing standard and binding rules for making speed humps, family gardens, playgrounds for the young people and social clubs for women and the elderly. He said he would focus on spreading awareness among various categories of the society and schools in the area would play a key role in this in co-operation with the competent government entities.
Regarding the issue of partitioned villas, he seemed more practical.
“This issue should be dealt with transparency; we have a shortage of adequate housing, so why not make sub-apartments inside big villas but make them in a proper way, conforming to the rules of safety and human dignity, and discreet use of water and electricity,” he said.
He explained that otherwise, people would do it surreptitiously, giving room for illegal agents to exploit tenants who would be in constant fear of being evacuated any time.
“Such agents exploit people because the practise is not governed by the law and is done undercover. They tell the tenants you need to pay more because the owner wants so, and in most cases the owner does not know anything, he has just rented out the place for a certain sum.”
Al-Sulaiti said that during the four previous rounds of the CMC elections, people, especially the young, had become more and more mature. “First they elected members out of family alliances, personal connections, or social status. Then, they said let us give them another chance that they may do a good job, but now people are more open and the younger generation really demands change for the best,” he said.
“We need more communication and interaction with the people, this is the key for development, besides close follow-up.”
Tariq al-Sulaiti: contesting the CMC elections from Constituency No 11.
