Thirty-two women among Kuwait election candidates

By Haitham Haddadin

KUWAIT (Reuters) – Thirty-two women will be among 402
parliamentary candidates standing for election in Kuwait on
June 29, the first time in the history of the Gulf Arab state
that women will be allowed to seek office.

Most candidates are due to finish inaugurating campaigns in
the coming days. In some areas of the capital sidewalks and
roundabouts have disappeared behind candidates posters,
pictures, banners, and signs announcing campaign slogans.

“This is a true festival, women will run and vote for
parliament for the first time,” candidate Khaledah al-Khadher,
a 48-year-old doctor and mother of eight, told Reuters on
Sunday.

“I know everyone is saying women most likely won’t win any
seats but I believe women will reach parliament, God willing,”
added Khadher, who unsuccessfully ran in a municipal election.

A historic bill passed last year granted female suffrage in
the U.S. ally and key oil producer.

Government figures showed after registration officially
closed on Saturday that 402 people, including 32 women, penned
their names as candidates in the poll.

Some 340,000 voters of whom 195,000, or 57 percent, are
women, are eligible to choose the new 50-seat house that
replaces the previous assembly dissolved last month by the
emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

The emir’s action came after a row between reformist MPs
and the cabinet over electoral reforms.

The poll will be contested under the old law that divides
the country of one million Kuwaitis into 25 electoral
districts. This issue was at the center of the battle between
reformist MPs and the government and led to parliament’s
dissolution.

The cabinet had backed a bill that cuts the districts to 10
but the reformist MPs wanted the number lowered to five to
guard against what they call polls irregularities such as vote
buying.

“Reforming electoral constituencies is the first gateway
for reform,” former MP Abdullah al-Roomi told the state news
agency.

Three from the Sabah ruling family had withdrawn their
candidacies at the request of the emir to avoid getting
embroiled in polling rough-and-tumble.

No member of the Sabah family, which controls key cabinet
posts, has run in such elections. The assembly is a powerful
body that often clashes with the cabinet, most recently over
electoral districts.

Newspapers said 47 MPs in the dissolved assembly are
bidding for re-election, including former speakers Jassem
al-Kharafi and Ahmad al-Saadoun. Candidates include powerful
Islamists — who formed a 15-man bloc in the previous assembly.

English language daily Kuwait Times said the poll is
branded by reformists as a “true battle between corruption and
reform.”