No objection to NOC in Sultanate, poll reveals

The govt unit tasked with driving reform launched the poll and 59 per cent said Oman should keep it

MUSCAT: Almost 60 per cent of the tens of thousands of residents who voted in an online government poll want the No Objection Certificate rule to stay. A government unit had launched online polls recently, in English and Arabic, asking people to vote on whether the rule – which bars expats from working in Oman for two years if they don’t have the NOC from their employer – should be scrapped.

The government’s Implementation Support and Follow-Up Unit (ISFU), created to drive through diversification programmes in the Sultanate, created the polls via its official twitter account. Results from the English language poll revealed that 56 per cent of voters support the NOC rule, while 42 per cent said they do not, with the remaining two per cent “unsure”.

Results from the Arabic poll indicated that a majority of residents – 62 per cent - “disagree” with removing the NOC guideline. Only 32 per cent of voters “agree” with removing the regulation, while six per cent were unsure.

When both polls are taken together, the votes show that 59 per cent people who voted support the NOC regulation, while 32 per cent on average want it removed. 7,117 votes were cast in the Arabic poll, while the Eng- lish language poll got 28,738 votes. With 35,855 total votes, the polls show that about 20,506 votes went for the regulation, while 14,347 votes went against the NOC regulation, with 1,002 unsure voters.

The Arabic language poll received almost 400 comments, while the English one a staggering 2.1 thousand comments in its Twitter thread. The comments featured conflicting opinions on the measure, and solutions that would find middle ground with regards to amending NOCs.

In 2014, Omani authorities implemented a two-year ban for expatriates, if they fail to acquire a No Objection Certificate from their current employer in order to switch jobs in the Sultanate.