Rattlesnake Ridge 
BFF
“Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani said there would be a vote for an advisory council in 2013, in line with a constitution introduced eight years ago. The decision is another victory, though a small one given the delayed and partial nature of the change, for the Arab Spring which Qatar did so much to foment. The royal family’s failure to introduce any semblance of the democracy it was helping elsewhere to promote, through the Al-Jazeera television channel which it owns, and finance with its large-scale backing for the revolution in Libya, has drawn increasing political attention to itself. “We have always preferred that regimes start changes on their own and lead the movement of transformation, instead of seeing people rise up,” the Emir said in a nod to the contradiction………...”
No doubt the Qatari potentate had to do something. His Aljazeera network could not continue publicizing Arab uprisings against despots in Syria and Libya and other places while his own people had no representation. A two-third elected parliament is better than no parliament, depending on what other actions the government takes to influence the elections. The “devil is in the detail” and all that. It will be better than Bahrain which has nominally a half-elected legislature but it is effectively no more elected than 30% or so. It is even better than the case of Saudi Arabia where no one votes for a legislature or a dog-catcher and the ‘Shoura” council is fully appointed by the royal family. The Saudi “elections” they are talking about are for toothless municipal councils, which will also act as “advisory”, pending the accession to the throne of Prince Nayef (Naif) who will then get rid of them.
Arab potentates on the Gulf are learning how to “game the system”. Just as Mubarak and Saleh did, they can have all the pretensions of popular elections, without the headache and inconvenience of actual accountability. It would also make the Western allies happier, once they learn to turn a blind eye.
Cheers
mhg
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