Candidate Rakan Youssef Al Nesif (right), celebrates with supporters following his victory, at his campaign headquarters in Kuwait City, yesterday.
KUWAIT: Liberals and candidates from some of Kuwait’s more marginalised tribes have won seats in a parliament which may prove more cooperative with the ruling family after opposition Islamists and populists boycotted the election.
Saturday’s ballot was the sixth since 2006 in the major oil producer, where political upheaval and bureaucracy have held up the vast majority of projects in a KD30bn ($105bn) economic development plan announced in 2010.
Government resigned yesterday in line with the constitution after parliamentary polls, the country’s second since December, and the ruling emir asked the cabinet to stay on in a caretaker role. A day after the elections, the ruler H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah accepted the resignation but asked Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al Sabah and his ministers to stay on until a new cabinet is formed, state news agency Kuna reported.
After consultations, the emir may tap the outgoing premier, the likely scenario, or another senior member of the ruling family to form a new cabinet.
Kuwait has the most open political system in the Gulf Arab region but parliaments have been repeatedly dissolved over procedural disputes or for challenging the government in which members of the ruling Al Sabah family hold top posts.
“The large number of new MPs gives hope that a National Assembly with greater popular backing can find a way of improving relations with the government,” said Gulf expert Kristian Ulrichsen, at the US-based Baker Institute for Public Policy, referring to a 12 percent higher turnout than last time.
“The increased turnout signals that many Kuwaitis are ready to put the recent past behind them and move forward,” Ulrichsen said. In accordance with Kuwait’s legislation, the outgoing cabinet approved a draft decree inviting new lawmakers to hold their first parliamentary session on August 6, Kuna said.
The turnout in searing heat and during the fasting month of Ramadan was still lower than in several elections before 2012 when about 60 percent of voters cast ballots. The US ally has seen street protests in the past two years, including over changes to the voting procedures, but its generous welfare system and relative tolerance of dissent have helped to shield it from more serious Arab Spring-style unrest. Voters also complained about a lack of development in Kuwait — one of the world’s richest countries per capita. Newly-elected Kamel Al Awadi said he would “work on all projects that move the economy forward” including housing and infrastructure projects. Many of these were touted in the 2010 development plan and have not been delivered.
The mainly Islamist and populist opposition boycotted the poll in protest against a new voting system announced last year, which cut the number of votes per citizen to one from four. Opposition politicians said this would prevent them forming a majority in parliament.
Shias — estimated at 20-30 percent of the population —won just eight seats in the 50-member parliament compared to 17 in the last election in December, after Sunnis in their districts ramped up a campaign to win seats.
Political parties are banned so candidates campaign independently or with links to political movements Reuters
