Kuwaiti voters head to the polls on Thursday to elect members of a new National Assembly, two months after parliament was dissolved and the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state, which has an exceptional parliamentary life compared to its neighbors, vowed not to interfere in the work of parliament.
On Wednesday, Kuwait entered a stage of pre-election silence ahead of the start of the voting process in the parliamentary elections, as candidates and the media must “refrain from any activity related to the promotion of candidates,” an Al-Hurra correspondent reported. .
The new elections are taking place in connection with the adoption of a new parliamentary system that, for the first time in electoral history, does not allow tribes to hold their own by-elections and vote with a civil ticket, an Al-Hurra correspondent reports.
In August, the country’s emir, Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, dissolved the previous parliament after an escalating crisis between the legislative and executive branches.
The country, next to Iran and Iraq, is rocked by frequent political crises involving the government, members of the ruling family and a parliament that has been dissolved several times, AFP reported.
The reason is often the MPs’ demand to hold ministers from the princely family accountable for issues, including corruption, the agency said.
Kuwait is one of the largest exporters of crude oil in the world and was the first Gulf country to adopt a parliamentary system in 1962.
The Crown Prince’s Promise
In Thursday’s elections, the eighteenth in political history and the sixth in ten years, opposition figures and political movements that boycotted the elections a decade ago accused the executive branch of influencing the work of parliament.
The People’s Action Movement candidate, which has boycotted elections in recent years, Muhammad Musaed Al-Dosari, told AFP that the reason for this return is the content of a speech delivered by the crown prince of Kuwait on behalf of the emir. country in June last year.
“It included clear and precise promises and commitments not to interfere in elections and to defend democracy,” he added.
And the Crown Prince of Kuwait, Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, said in his speech: “We will not interfere in the choice of the people for their representatives, and we will also not interfere in the choice of the next National Assembly in the choice of its speaker or committees, for Parliament to be the master of its decisions, and we will not support one group at the expense of another.”
Political scientist Ayed Al-Manna believes that the Kuwaiti leadership in this speech “reassured” the Kuwaitis, “who called for a boycott of former political forces and deputies to return to participate in the elections,” AFP reports.
In 2021, the emir pardoned political opponents who were tried on various issues, AFP reports.
313 candidates, including 22 women candidates, are vying for 50 seats representing 5 constituencies amid a push for women to return to the Abdullah al-Salem Hall in the National Assembly after it lost its only seat during the legislative elections, held in December 2020.
According to AFP, women make up 51.2 percent of the 795,920 voters.
political and economic problems
Unlike previous elections that were marred by the coronavirus, the authorities have allowed candidates to open polls and organize speech festivals to present their campaign platforms.
Security services have stepped up their efforts to monitor any attempt to buy electoral votes, and the results are expected to be officially announced on Friday, AFP reported.
Al-Dosari expected that “the majority of the new members of the National Assembly would work with the government to reform and dismantle the corrupt state that had dominated the country, while establishing a real development plan.”
Like its neighbors, Kuwait is seeking to diversify its economy, which is almost entirely dependent on oil, but bureaucracy, corruption and a lack of effective plans for economic transformation threaten to put the US ally, which houses thousands of American soldiers, in serious economic difficulties.
Similarly, Kuwait, which is a mixture of Sunnis and Shiites and has a population of about 4.2 million, lacks young leaders, unlike other Gulf states that appoint young politicians and diplomats to high positions, AFP reported.
In recent years, Kuwaitis have expressed a desire for reform and change in a country where expatriates make up 70 percent of the population.
Kuwait is facing another challenge with the fate of tens of thousands of stateless people and is accused of discriminatory treatment of them, AFP reported.
In addition, Kuwait has faced security concerns, especially with networks supporting armed groups in the region, and has witnessed bloody attacks, most recently in 2015 when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Shiite mosque, killing 25 people and injuring more than 200, according to AFP.
According to the constitution, the government, headed by the son of the emir of the country, Sheikh Ahmed Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, will resign the day after the announcement of the election results.
The opposition, which includes mostly Islamist politicians, won 24 out of 50 seats in the previous election, knowing it won a historic victory in 2012 when it won more than half of the seats in parliament before the National Assembly was dissolved shortly thereafter. .
A new government was formed in August, the fifth in two years since the Council of Ministers resigned in April, as MPs prepared to question its prime minister, Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah, about actions deemed “unconstitutional.” , according to AFP.
