An Omani woman casts her ballot for a consultative council at a polling station in Muscat on Sunday.

Omanis voted on Sunday for a consultative council. The powers of the Majlis Al-Shoura were expanded in 2011 by Sultan Qaboos. About 612,000 people are eligible to vote at 107 polling stations in 61 districts.

From 596 candidates, including 20 women, a fall of three quarters from the last council polls, the voters will choose 85 members of the Majlis Al-Shoura, the election commission said.

“The outgoing Majlis wasn’t able to take advantage of its new powers,” said Omani analyst Ahmed Ali Al-Mukhaini.

When Sultan Qaboos took power, Oman was an isolated country with little or no infrastructure. He transformed it into a modern state over the course of his 45-year rule.

As part of a series of reform measures, Qaboos decreed that the Majlis would be able to revise and propose legislation.

In late 2011, the Majlis elected its speaker for the first time and assumed the power to grill ministers.

The Majlis was created in 1991 and has a four-year term. It has no role in defense, internal security or foreign affairs.

A drab election campaign has failed to inspire potential voters in the country of 4.1 million, of which 44 percent are foreigners.

Candidates plastered the streets with their portraits and focused on socio-economic issues in the stable nation bordering war-ravaged Yemen.

The sultanate derives 79 percent of its revenues from petroleum, but with global prices down by roughly half since early 2014 it has projected a budget deficit this year of $6.47 billion. That represents about eight percent of gross domestic product.

Oman, located on the Arabian Sea, has good ties with its neighbors as well as with Iran.

Western nations have repeatedly turned to Muscat to act as a mediator in resolving delicate issues, from the kidnapping of Americans and Europeans to the Iran nuclear deal concluded last July.

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