FNC 2019: Emirati women to scale peak of empowerment

ABU DHABI / WAM

Emirati women will scale the peak of their empowerment journey during the FNC Elections 2019 to be held next October, by achieving 50 percent representation in parliament.
This is in line with the implementation of Resolution No. 01 of 2019 issued by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan on raising the representation of women in the FNC to 50 percent.
In the following report, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) monitors the main milestones in the empowerment of Emirati women in the parliamentary field.
The Women’s Empowerment programme launched by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa in 2005 represented a significant milestone in the history of Emirati women, and in 2006, Emirati women
participated in the first FNC elections as voters and candidates.
During the first election, Dr. Amal Qubaisi, the current FNC Speaker, won a seat in the FNC elections and eight other women were appointed in the parliament, with women representation in the FNC being 22 percent.
The 2006 voter list comprised around 1,000 women from 6,595 voters and 65 women were FNC member candidates from a total of 465 candidates, with a rate of 14.25 percent.
During the second election in 2011, women accounted for 46 percent of the total number of voters, while 85 women ran for elections.
During the 2015 election, women voters accounted for 48 percent of the total of 224,281 voters.
In the 2019 election, women comprised 170,967 voters, accounting for 50.62 percent of the total number of voters at 337,738.
The numbers of voters included 101,549 voters in Abu Dhabi, including 52,470 women, with a percentage of 51.67, and 60,772 voters in Dubai, including 30,879 women, with a percentage of 50.81.