KUWAIT CITY, May 17: Kuwaitis voted for change in the Gulf emirate’s second poll in a year, giving women their first seats in parliament and punishing Islamic groups, according to results released on Sunday.
Frustrated at political turmoil that has rocked the wealthy Opec member over the past three years, Kuwaitis voted 21 new faces into the 50-member parliament, reducing Sunni groups to a minority.
There was no immediate official figure on Saturday’s election turnout, but the state-run KUNA news agency estimated it at 58 per cent, down from last year’s 65 per cent.
Four women candidates made history by winning the first female seats in the Kuwaiti parliament, with one of them coming on top of the 10 winners from her district.
Liberals Massuma Al Mubarak, Aseel Al Awadhi and Rula Dashti, besides independent Salwa Al Jassar won seats in the new house. The four women are all US-educated and hold doctorate degrees in political science, economics and education.
Sixteen women were among 210 candidates who stood in the election, the third since 2006.
“This is the will of change of the Kuwaiti people,” MP Mubarak said. “We hope the re sults will lead to political stability and help achieve the desired cooperation between parliament and government.” The two mainstream Sunni groups, the Islamic Salafi Alliance and the Islamic Constitutional Movement, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, were dealt a heavy blow, winning just three seats against seven held in the previous parliament.
Their tribal Islamic supporters were also reduced from 14 to just eight seats. And instead of winning first positions like they did last year, several of them came in last. Liberals and their allies improved their tally by one seat to eight. The Shia groups emerged as big winners, almost doubling their strength from five seats to nine.
The nationalist Popular Action Bloc led by veteran opposition figure Ahmad Al Saadun took three seats, down one.
Major tribes, which account for half of the population, won 25 seats, a few of them proIslamists.
Under law, a new cabinet must be named before elected MPs hold their first formal session after two weeks. The early elections were called after Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah dissolved parliament in March for the second time in a year.—AFP
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