Council of Oman

The Council of Oman is a bicameral parliament, made up of the members of the State Council and the Consultation Council, as stipulated in Article 58 of the Basic Law of the State. It is considered to be the main Parliament in Oman. It assists the government in drawing up the general policies of the state. The Council meets at the request of Sultan Qaboos, to study and discuss matters raised by him, taking all its decisions on the basis of a majority vote. Sultan Qaboos addresses all the members of this Council on an annual basis. There are 15 women members (14 of them are in the state council) among the 167 members of the parliament.

In November 2009 construction work began on the Majlis Oman project, a landmark building to accommodate the parliament assembly hall and the upper and lower houses. The development, which is being designed by q-dar and built by Carillion Alawi, is due to complete in 2013.

In October 2011, Sultan Qaboos expanded the power of the Council of Oman.