DUBAI - The president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) promised that full direct elections will follow next month's first ever partial polls, but without setting a timeframe, in an interview published Monday.
The polls for the Federal National Council (FNC), a consultative body, will mark "a change which will take place gradually to lead to a full electoral operation", said Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
The president of the oil-rich UAE told the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the change would come "after the necessary judicial bases have been put in place for direct universal elections".
"When a change is structural and concerns the future of the country, that change can not be subject to hastiness or skipping stages," he said.
Registration opened on Sunday for the partial polls due to take place on December 16, 18 and 20 to elect half of the 40 members of the FNC through electoral colleges in each of the seven members of the UAE federation.
The rest of the members of the council, which has powers to reject or amend government legislation but no authority to initiate bills, will be appointed.
Only dignitaries of the seven emirates will have the vote. "The electorate is made up of a total of 6,689 citizens, 1,189 of them women," according to a cabinet decision quoted by the state news agency WAM.
Blair blasts Britons over Iraq war