DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Qatar voted Tuesday to end its limited elections for legislative seats, passing a measure to end the country’s short-lived experiment in electing members of the advisory Shura council.

The voting took place as the world’s attention focused on the US presidential election, with even Qatar’s state-funded satellite news network Al Jazeera providing brief confirmations of the vote which was sandwiched between coverage of the US election and the wars in the Central East. Although Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, announced a vote would take place last month, authorities only announced the date of the election on Sunday.

Qatar’s Interior Ministry reported the results early Wednesday, saying 89% of voters supported the constitutional change in a yes-no vote, with 9.2% voting no and 1.8% of votes declared invalid. It did not provide an immediate total vote total in the autocratic nation.

Voting lasted 12 hours and ended at 7:00 PM local time. All Qatari workers in the country were also allowed to leave work from 11am to vote.

Qatar’s state news agency described the mood as “an enthusiastic atmosphere and a historic moment, clearly confirming everyone’s willingness to make this national celebration a success.”

The vote will “strengthen the social fabric in the most beautiful image and form, which frankly represents an important stage in the victorious march of the country and its national unity,” the news agency added.

Qatar first introduced plans for parliamentary elections in its 2003 constitution, but authorities repeatedly delayed implementation of the elections. In October 2021, the country finally held elections for two-thirds of the Shura Council, which drafts laws, approves state budgets and advises the ruler.

The elections came after the end of a boycott of Qatar by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that tore apart the Arab Gulf states. It also came about a year earlier Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cupan event that drew intense scrutiny from the West into the country’s treatment of foreign workers and its governance system.

Qatar remains an important country for the West because it has hosted and assisted the Taliban NATO’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and if a mediator as the war rages between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and has expanded to Lebanon.

But the elections caused problems in the energy-rich country. The electoral law distinguishes between born and naturalized Qatari citizens and excludes the latter from electoral participation. Human Rights Watch described the system as “discriminatory,” excluding thousands of Qataris from participating in the elections or their right to vote. The disqualifications sparked small protests that led to several arrests.

Announcing the vote on the amendment to the constitution, Sheikh Tamim said: “The struggle between candidates for membership of the Shura Council took place within families and tribes, and there are different views on the consequences of such competition for our standards , traditions and also as the conventional social institutions and their coherence.”

“The competition assumes an identity-based nature that we cannot deal with, with possible complications down the line that we would rather avoid,” he added.

The vote marks another reversal in the hereditary-ruled Gulf Arab states from halting moves to embrace representative rule, following efforts by the United States to push harder for democratic reforms in the Middle East after the attacks of September 11, 2001. In their aftermath, hopes for democracy in the region also increased the Arab Spring of 2011.

In May, The ruler of oil-rich Kuwait dissolved his country’s parliament for no less than four years. Although the Kuwaiti parliament had struggled, it represented the Gulf Arab state’s most free-acting legislative body and was able to challenge the country’s rulers.