Registration of voters in Qatar starts Saturday

The Ministry of the Interior in Qatar on Monday called upon voters, both men and women, to register their names on election lists starting on Saturday in order to take part in the first municipal elections in the country.

So far no date has been set for the elections, which official sources expected to be carried out on February 20, 1999.

The Ministry of the Interior in Qatar released a statement in which it called on each Qatari citizen who has had Qatari nationality for more than 15 years, is above 18 years old, and has never been sentenced to register his or her name on the election lists between October 3 - 22. The statement noted that members of the armed forces and the police cannot take part in the elections.

Last July, the ruler of Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani approved an endorsed law to establish a municipal council of 29 members, to be elected by a direct vote to terms of four years.

Qatar's population is estimated at 522,000, according to a census held in 1997.