Qatar’s first legislative elections to be held October 2

DUBAI - Qatar's first legislative polls for two-thirds of the advisory Shura Council will be held on October 2, according to a decree issued by the ruling emir on Sunday and published by his office.

Qataris will elect 30 members of the 45-seat body while Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani will continue to appoint the remaining 15 members. The Council will have legislative authority and approve general state policies and the budget.

Tribal sensitivities have resurfaced in Qatar after some members of a main tribe found themselves ineligible to vote in the country's legislative polls under a new electoral law for the advisory Shura Council.

Members of the Al Murrah tribe, one of the Gulf's largest bedouin groups with roots tracing back to eastern Saudi Arabia, gathered last week to protest at the law that bars Qataris whose family was not present in Qatar before 1930 from voting.

One tribesman posted a video appeal to the emir. "Unfounded political inequality and selective citizenship could lead to divisions," lawyer Hazaa bin Ali said in the appeal to Sheikh Tamim posted on YouTube and on his Twitter account.

"We stood by your ancestors, your highness, and we stood by you in the blockade crisis," he added. "We will demand our rights and our dignity...We ask you to do what is right."