Opposition seen gaining in Kuwait election Friday, 03 February 2012 05:04

A Kuwaiti woman casts her vote in the Parliamentary elections at a polling station in Kuwait City yesterday.

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti opposition candidates were set to make gains in a snap parliamentary election held yesterday in the Gulf Arab country.

Kuwait’s Emir, H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, called the vote in December after dissolving the chamber in response to a deepening political deadlock that has stymied reform and held up vital development projects.

“In the past years the parliament broke our hearts and let us down,” said Badr Yousef Al Juweihel after casting his ballot at Al Adeyliya polling station in central Kuwait. “We didn’t benefit; in fact we went backwards and our time was wasted.”

Polls closed at 8pm (1700 GMT) and the initial results were expected as early as midnight. Authorities said there were no reports of violence.

Frustration has been growing at the impasse which came to a head in November when protesters led by opposition MPs stormed the assembly demanding the resignation of then-Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah, accusing him of corruption.

The vote, in which 287 candidates competed for seats, will usher in Kuwait’s fourth parliament in six years.

“The situation cannot remain as it was,” opposition candidate Faisel Al Mislem told hundreds of supporters at a campaign event in the run-up to the election. “If this election is just a game of musical chairs, then it’s a waste of time.”

Kuwait’s parliament is fully elected with legislative powers, something unique in the region. But formal political parties are not allowed, which means opposition politicians are forced to rely on forming blocs in parliament.

That has undermined the ability of parliamentarians to mount effective opposition with clear programmes.

Shahin Shamsabadi, senior associate at the Risk Advisory Group, said deputies still had a chance of broadening the powers of the 50-member chamber if public opinion were on their side.

“The key thing is: are the people going to be fed up enough this time to change the parliament, or is it going to take another election?” Shamsabadi said.

Men and women queued outside separate schools, handing their identity cards to a panel before selecting up to four candidates on a piece of paper and slipping it into a see-through ballot box. “I voted for the people who will accelerate development and the economy,” said Monia Al Nouri, emerging from a polling station in a suburb of the capital.

REUTERS

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