ABU DHABI // Dr Anwar Gargash expects the new Federal National Council to include more women than before, but said there will be no gender-based quotas.
At the last elections in 2006, 63 of the 452 candidates were women - but only one was elected.
However, the 40-member council included nine females in total, because they claimed eight of the 20 appointed seats.
Dr Gargash, the Minister of State for FNC Affairs, believes women will be more successful at the polls this year.
"I think that we will see a lot of women candidates and we will see a lot of campaigns by women candidates.
"I think that this is all very healthy, and we hope that these are successfully concluded.
"Last time we had one woman, but many were appointed. The issue of women in the UAE is a big success story."
He said it was extremely important for women to be fully represented on the FNC and for the FNC "to be able to have a fair representation".
But Dr Gargash said there was no need for quotas.
"I think that women are capable of winning elections and that rulers of the various emirates and the appointments in the appointee segment, can actually appoint enough women to make sure that we have representation," he said.
One of the key recommendations of a government-backed 2009 report on women's role in the 2006 elections was that they should be taken off their family books, in order to campaign and vote without a male relative's consent.
That is unlikely to happen this year, according to Dr Gargash.
"But that's a different issue," he said.
"This is about elections. What is extremely important is for women to be fully represented and for us to have that representation in order to enrich the membership that will come."
A 2009 United Nations report rated the UAE as one of the most progressive Arab countries in terms of female political participation. It noted that as well as the nine women on the FNC, there were four female ministers.
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- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
- energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
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Pre-school (three - five years)
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Early childhood (six - eight years)
Replace the money bank with three jars labelled ‘saving’, ‘spending’ and ‘sharing’. Have the child divide their allowance into the three jars each week and explain their choices in splitting their pocket money. A guide could be 25 per cent saving, 50 per cent spending, 25 per cent for charity and gift-giving.
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Young teens (12 - 14 years)
Change your child’s allowance from weekly to monthly and help them pinpoint long-range goals such as a trip, so they can start longer-term saving and find new ways to increase their saving.
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* JP Morgan Private Bank
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