Mohammed al Tamimi had two choices when he wanted to vote in the UAE’s last national elections in 2015: he could either take a 45-minute flight to Abu Dhabi or board a ferry to Jebel Dhanna and then drive to the nearest polling station.

The first option involved paying for costly airline tickets while the alternative was a time-consuming, 10-hour round trip. Neither seemed that appealing.

This year, however, voting in the country’s upcoming elections will take Mr al Tamimi just minutes to complete.

For the first time he will be able to vote in his hometown on Dalma Island, about 60km off the coast of Abu Dhabi.

Officials are hoping a number of new polling stations in more remote communities around the Emirates will increase voter turnout at the Federal National Council elections on October 5.
“It’s the first time,” said Mr Al Tamimi, 45. “Before we went to Abu Dhabi or Madinat Zayed and sometimes it was difficult due to bad weather, waves or high winds.”

About one in three eligible voters cast their ballots for the last FNC elections four years ago.

This year, three new polling stations have been added to the list, making a total of 39 centres in cities including Hatta in Dubai, Mleiha and Al Dhaid in Sharjah, Falaj Al Mualla in Umm Al Quwain and Masfoot, a town in the interior of Ajman.

“We’re trying to reach every geographical area in UAE as much as we can,” said Tariq Lootah, the undersecretary of the Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs.

“We try to reach all voters and provide every service to make it easy for them to vote.”

In the 2011 elections, entire villages were found to have failed to vote.

“I didn’t vote last time,” said Noura Al Qaidi, a resident of Muna'i, a town 110km south of Ras Al Khaimah city.
“Muna'i was very far from Ras Al Khaimah - it’s like, why am I going? If I go, what do I really get out of this?”

Non-urban communities like Muna’i often stand to gain the most from FNC representation and are central to debates on crucial topics such as fishing rights, agricultural policies and air pollution from quarrying.

Additionally, residents outside capital cities are proportionally more reliant on government healthcare, public schooling and other key services.

On election day in 2011, extended families from Ras Al Khaimah’s north coast villages travelled to the downtown polling station together and picnicked outside. They shared coffee and their political views to anyone who would listen.

But southern voters in the emirate in that year, as well as in 2015, failed to cast their ballots. Many lived at least two hours from the polling centre.

Even today, remote voters still miss a critical aspect of Emirati voter engagement: the majlis circuit.

Campaigning in the UAE usually takes place at majlis sitting rooms in people’s homes rather than public venues. Rare is the candidate who ventures to more far-flung corners of the country.

“Nobody came,” said Ms Al Qaidi, referring to all of the UAE’s three previous elections. “Nobody from outside Muna’i ever came to our town.”

Today, however, with improved, modern road networks, access to polling centres is far easier.

In Abu Dhabi, a new coastal motorway has cut the drive to the capital from Al Dhafra cities by hours.

This is a contrast to 2011, when it took residents from the Saudi-UAE border town of Sila, two to three hours to drive to their nearest polling station.

That year, Madinat Zayed was the sole polling station in Al Dhafra, the western region of Abu Dhabi that is three and a half times the size of Lebanon.

Meanwhile, voter turnout was barely 21 per cent in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

In 2015, officials organised a polling station at Sila’s community wedding hall. Turnout improved.

And over recent years, the government has steadily taken steps to increase the number of citizens eligible to vote across the country.

This year, just under a quarter of the Emirati population is able to vote, a 50 per cent increase from the 224,000 voters eligible in 2015.

This has translated into prospective candidates having a much stronger interest in voters living in more remote communities.

“I think if one person runs on Dalma Island, every single person will vote for him,” said Mr Al Tamimi, one the island’s 10,000 residents.
“But you know, the total number of people on Delma Island is not so big.”

Nearly half of the Ras Al Khaimah’s population lived outside the capital in 2005 but government housing projects have since seen thousands of families migrate to city suburbs.

Less than six per cent of Abu Dhabi’s Emirati population live in the Al Dhafra region, according to 2017 government statistics.

Candidates from non-urban centres must still register in cities and generally have a smaller support network.

“They’re competing with all of Abu Dhabi, Al Dhafra and Al Ain and there will be just two women and two men chosen from Abu Dhabi,” said Ali Mubarak, 34, a Sila resident.

“If you are from Abu Dhabi or Al Ain, you have a population with lots of people behind you.

“Sila is Sila. We have, what, two or three hundred people [here]. You need thousands of votes to win.”