Abu Dhabi 12 May 2010
The Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs has sent a team of its employees to the UK to acquire first hand information about the late general elections in the United Kingdom to look at and closely inspect the general elections there in a bid to benefit from the experience and the know-how of the British establishments in managing the elections and get a first-hand knowledge of the mechanisms employed in their electoral system.
During the four–day visit program that was designed for the delegation by the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the delegation that was headed by H.E. Tarek Hilal Lootah, Director General, Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs, and together with H.E. Sami Mohamed Bin Adi, Executive Manager, Support Services, and Mr. Mohamed Ibrahim Al Saigal, Head of Media & Communications Section, as members, had first-hand knowledge of the electoral and political system in the United Kingdom and got acquainted with the responsibilities and tasks of the different authorities involved with the organization and management of the elections.
On the first day of the visit, the delegation met with members of the British Foreign Ministry who, aided by a presentation prepared by the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, reviewed the main features of the parliamentary elections, and provided a general structure of the political system and the election procedures in the United Kingdom. The day was rounded off by a seminar organized by the British Electoral Commission, during which the role of this Authority in monitoring the registration of the political parties, media campaigns expenditure and public awareness participation was highlighted.
On the second day of the program, the UAE delegation paid a visit to the British Ministry of Justice, the official authority for the legislations and rules organizing the general elections. The Democracy and Elections Commissioner and his team reviewed the set of election rules and the mechanism of distributing electoral constituencies and listened to a brief account of the election law and the British party system.
The delegation inspected the elections and had field visits of the polling stations in Brighton to have a close and practical idea of the voting mechanism, the procedures applied at these stations, and to review the procedures and mechanism of receiving and sorting out the voting ballots sent by mail. The delegation witnessed the opening of the ballot boxes and sorting out the votes which continued until the early hours of the following day.
Commenting on the visit, H.E. Tarek Hilal Lootah stressed that since its inception, the Ministry had been keen on familiarizing its staff with the best international practices in all fields of work and particularly on ways of consolidating means of communications between the government and parliaments as part of enhancing political participation which leads to the realization of the Ministry’s strategic objective. H.E. particularly reiterated the vital role of visits in having a full and detailed image of other countries experiences which would reflect positively on the Ministry’s practices in force.
H.E. went on to say that attending the parlimanty elections in the UK and getting familiar with the experiences and operations of the British establishments and authorities involved with managing the elections have enabled us to fully benefit from Britain’s long and deep-rooted experience in the management and organization of elections. The visit has also reinforced the bilateral ties with those establishments and gave us the chance to meet with a number of staff who are in charge of similar duties in other countries and to benefit from the valuable experience of those countries in this field. H.E. said the visit was highly successful and it offered so many academic and practical experiences and knowledge about political and parliamentary life in the UK. It is worth mentioning here that 12 different countries took part in the visit program.
To conclude the visit, his H.E. Lootah expressed his deep thanks and appreciation for the efforts made by the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the preparation of the visit program. H.E. also thanked the UAE’s embassy in London for their efforts in assisting the delegation and making big success of their visit.
It is worth mentioning that the Ministry of State For Federal National Council Affairs has arranged for many visits that aimed at reviewing similar experiences to enhance the national experience and develop its mechanism in order to reach the best international practices in the field of coordination between the government and the parliamentary councils. Other countries covered by the visit program included Arab Republic of Egypt, Kingdom of Morocco, the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, Kingdom of Jordan, Sultanate of Oman and the Kingdom of Bahrain. The delegation also reviewed and was familiarized with the experience of the Republic of Indonesia of the previous presidential elections.
