Muscat: More than 20 candidates who filed nominations to contest elections to Oman’s Shura Council withdrew from the fray citing personal reasons.

The requests by the candidates came before the August 25 deadline for withdrawal from the election fray.

The list of candidates vying for 85 seats in the coming election has now shrunk to 654.

In accordance with Article 31 of the election law, the election committee has the right to object to nominations on the final list of candidates within five days from the date of its declaration.

More than 600,000 nationals will take part in the Shura vote, which is scheduled to be held in October.

The 30-44 age group accounted for the largest group of candidates, with 432 candidates in that bracket constituting 64 per cent of the total number.

As for educational qualifications, 38.1 per cent of candidates had completed secondary school, while 36.6 per cent were graduates. Candidates with PhDs account for 2.8 per cent of the candidate list.

It may be recalled that the Ministry of Interior last June blacklisted a number of candidates. Among those banned from running in the elections are current members including Salim Al Awfi, Humaid Al Nasri and Salim Al Mashani.

Khalid Bin Hilal Al Busaidi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior, Chairman of the Main Committee for Majlis Al Shura elections to the Shura Council, said that the Ministry of Interior and the Main Committee had followed up on preliminary lists of candidates and had found that some candidates had given inaccurate information.

He said 174 applications were turned down.

Al Busaidi said that most of the applications that failed to meet requirements had been pulled up over felony or crimes involving moral turpitude, making up for 45 per cent of the total rejected applications.

Another 23 per cent of the applicants had failed to apply within the specified time-frame, while 9 per cent hadn’t cleared secondary school.

Article 58 of the Omani Basic Law stipulates that a candidate of Majlis Al Shura should be an Omani national by birth, be of at least 30 years of age, and should never have been sentenced to a felony or crime involving moral turpitude or breach of trust. It also stipulates that the candidate should be on the electoral role, and not be affiliated to a security or military authority, not interdicted by a judicial judgement, and not be suffering from mental illness.

Only one woman succeeded in winning a seat in the 84-member council in the last elections in 2011.

The Omani Shura Council was established in 1991 to replace the Consultative State Council.

Majlis Al Shura is the lower house of the council of Oman and has enjoyed some legislative and regulatory powers since 2011.