Kuwait Elects Only One Woman to New Parliament
Only one of 13 women candidates managed to win a seat in Kuwait’s latest parliamentary election in which 10 first-time members were elected to the country’s National Assembly.
Jenan Boushehri, a former cabinet member who was one of two women elected in the annulled parliamentary election in September, received 5,048 votes and placed sixth of the 10 successful candidates in Kuwait’s third constituency.
About three-quarters of the declared winners of the September election were elected again in Tuesday’s election while 10 new candidates, most of them young, managed to beat incumbent MPs.
The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al Sabah resigned on Wednesday following the announcement of the election results and was assigned by emiri decree to continue in a caretaker role, the official Kuna news agency reported.
Two hundred and seven candidates contested the election – the lowest number since 1996. Voters braved sweltering heat – the temperature reached 44ºC at midday – to cast their ballots for a third time in as many years during a deadlock between the appointed government and elected parliament.
Only about 50 per cent of the 793,000 registered voters had cast ballots by the time polls closed at 8 pm. In March, the constitutional court annulled the results of last year’s election – in which the opposition made significant gains – and reinstated the previous parliament elected in 2020.
The emir called for a new election last month after dissolving the reinstated 2020 parliament because of the persistent political deadlock. Kuwait adopted a parliamentary system in 1962 but repeated political crises in recent years have resulted in state paralysis, with consecutive elected assemblies dissolved by the ruling emir.
Kuwait is divided into five constituencies, with each electing 10 members of parliament. Each voter has the right to cast one ballot for one candidate under a decree approved by the late former emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah in 2012. Previously, Kuwaitis could vote for four candidates per constituency.
Kuwait is the only Gulf Arab state to have an elected parliament with powers to hold the government to account through measures such as votes of no confidence against cabinet ministers, including the appointed prime minister.
