Oman today is an absolute monarchy, with the country's legislative and executive powers vested solely in the person of the sultan. The previous sultan, the late Qaboos bin Sa'id (r. 1970-2020), introduced different forms of representative councils, whose authority was limited to consultation and advice, through which the Omani population could exercise a modicum of democracy. The extension of the franchise to all adult Omanis in 2003 marked a milestone in this process of democratisation, but in the four elections under Sultan Qaboos voter since then, turnout plummeted, to below 50% in 2019. The combination of the form of government and low participation in ostensibly democratic mechanisms typically lead to characterisations of the Omani people as politicallly disengaged or unready for democracy. In this paper, based on a fieldwork spanning a decade (2011-2020), semi-structured interviews with Omanis across the country, and quantitative analysis of elections and election turnouts in Oman, I offer an alternative analysis of the refusal of younger Omanis to participate in elections and broader withdrawal from the political sphere. I reflect on the optimism in the wake of the 2011 Omani spring and the pessimism and outright cynicism that sprung from the widespread disillusion that followed. The consultative council's lack of real power is but one factor for the electorate's abstention: I argue that conceptions of what it means to be a good citizen likewise causes Omanis to turn away from the ballot box. This paper draws on and contributes to an emerging literature on silent citizenship (Gest and Gray 2018), arguing that intentional withdrawals from the political sphere, or “silence”, can and should be understood as another way of cultivating a political identity in unequal circumstances. It ends with a consideration of the most recent election under the new sultan, Haitham bin Tariq, and what we might expect to happen during his rule.