Women vote and run in Kuwaiti poll for first time

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwaitis voted for a new parliament on Thursday with women running and casting ballots for the first time in a national poll in the Gulf Arab state.

"I don't know how to describe my feelings, I am so happy, it's a beautiful day as women practice their right," female candidate Hind al-Shaikh said. "I hope a woman makes it."

Parliament passed a law in May 2005 giving women the right to vote and stand as candidates in elections for the 50-seat National Assembly of the oil-producing country.

More than 250 candidates are standing, including 28 women determined to make headway despite daunting odds of beating seasoned male opponents, many of them former parliamentarians seeking re-election.

"I hope all Kuwait women go out and vote and each woman has to give her vote to another woman," candidate Nabila al-Anjari, 50, told Reuters at a polling station in Jabriya constituency.

The poll was called after Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah dissolved parliament last month following a standoff between the government and opposition over electoral reforms.

The opposition accuses some members of government of trying to turn parliament into a rubber-stamp assembly through vote-buying. But the government has dismissed the charges, saying it is committed to reform in U.S. ally Kuwait.

The opposition is a loose alliance of pro-reform ex-MPs, Islamists and liberals, tolerated in Kuwait which bans parties.

Many experts say voting by Islamists and powerful, conservative tribes will hurt the chances of women candidates. But female candidates themselves say at least one of them may win as women are 57 percent of the 340,000 eligible voters.

"I feel I am going to cry of happiness because it's a historic moment for Kuwait ... I hope a woman can make it," said Diaa al-Saad, 55, one of the first women to vote in Jabriya.

Men and women braved the summer heat in the desert state to vote in separate polling stations across the conservative state as Islamists, who reject female suffrage, had demanded.

"Practice your right, let your voice be heard... take part in the election," said billboards sponsored by a women's group.

Campaigners handed out to voters roses or water bottles with candidates' photos. Some wore scarves with candidates' pictures.

"This is a day of big joy for Kuwaiti women, that's why we are here early," said Thuraya al-Qallaf after voting in Da'iya.

Most experts see only a small chance of success for female candidates given their political inexperience, tough competition from male candidates with established voter bases and the limited time they had to prepare campaigns.

Kuwait is partially free. The Executive is not elected. That's the Emir (King, basically) of Kuwait and the Prime Minister, traditionally the Crown Prince. I believe that either an advisory council selected in part by the parliament, or maybe even the parliament, has to approve the Prime Minister, but that's pretty much a formality I would imagine.

Anyhow, the parliament, elected in full in national elections every two years, does have real power. They must approve any decree by the Emir. For instance the Emir, IIRC, issued a decree extending the vote to women in 1999, but parliament rejected it. (They did approve decrees at the same time liberalizing the Kuwaiti economy, making it one of the freest in the Arab World.) It wasn't until last year that the woman's vote got through.

BTW, although the Emir can disband parliament, as in the circumstance leading to today's election, the Constitution requires that he call new elections within three months. He's always done so in the two or three times he's disbanded parliament since U.S. forces liberated Kuwait. (Prior to the liberation the Emir had pledged to uphold the constitution.) Compare and contrast to many other moderate Arab countries -- e.g. Jordan -- in which the executive often disbands the legislature for indefinite spans of time.

AP's story:

Kuwait holds first parliament elections in which women allowed to participate

Thu Jun 29, 5:15 AM

By Diana Elias

KUWAIT CITY (AP) - Women went to the polls Thursday for the first time in Kuwait, voting for parliament members in an election that has shaken up politics-as-usual in the conservative oil-rich emirate.

Women, who won the right to vote and run for office last year, went to separate polling stations from men. There are 28 female candidates among the 252 people running in the election, and women make 57 per cent of voters. "It feels like a wedding day," said Salwa al-Sanoussi, a 45-year-old house wife, one of the first to arrive at a women's polling station in Dahyia, one of Kuwait's wealthiest areas. She wore black and covered her hair with a matching headcover.

Candidate representatives waited for women, carrying umbrellas to shade themselves from the scorching sun as they walked from their chauffeured cars to the building. They also presented them with roses and cards bearing the name of their candidate.

Inside the school, four lines of women formed in the first hour of the vote, an indication that the turnout might be heavy.

With Thursday's vote, Saudi Arabia is now the only Arab country that holds elections but doesn't allow women to vote.

Even fundamentalist Muslims who opposed giving women the right to vote have campaigned for their support in the weeks heading up to Thursday's election.

But the entry of women is not the only new twist in the election. The vote has sparked a surprisingly vocal campaign for reform in Kuwait, where the ruling Al Sabah family heads the government and has a strong influence over politics.

During the campaigning, reformist candidates - who include Islamic fundamentalists and secular activists - spoke out harshly against corruption, accusing ministers and even members of the ruling family of mismanagement and wasting state land.

At one point, the emir, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, expressed his "deep hurt and dismay" over what he called the "low level of dialogue," in the campaigns - though the government did not attempt to clamp down on it.

Parliament has long been long broken down along the lines of tribal affiliation, Islamists and liberals, but many expect now it will be reshaped more along the main issues of pro-reformists and government supporters.

All 50 seats of the parliament are up for grabs in Thursday's vote. There are over 340,000 eligible voters, 57 per cent of them women. Polls are open for 12 hours, and the first results are expected late Thursday.

The debate was sparked by a dispute over redrawing the country's 25 electoral precincts that prompted Sheik Sabah to dissolve the legislature in late May and call new elections.

The cabinet had sought to cut the number of constituencies to 10, but a bloc of 29 legislators - backed by thousands of young men and women who demonstrated in the streets - wanted them reduced to five, saying that would make it almost impossible to buy votes.

They accused the government led by the Al Sabah family of procrastination and lack of seriousness about political reform.

Reformist legislators stormed out of the house when the cabinet introduced its 10-constituency proposal, egged on by Kuwaitis in the gallery, many of whom wore orange T-shirts and waved orange balloons.

Young demonstrators adopted the colour, which became synonymous with political reform.

The election campaign marks a new stage in the U.S. ally's tentative moves toward greater democracy.

Emirs have dissolved parliament four times since it was created in 1962, leaving the country without a legislature for years at times. Each time, dissolution has come after legislators became too critical in attempts to remove government ministers.

But parliament has shown it can be forceful in its disagreements with the government. For years, Islamists and conservative tribal members of parliament were able to hold up the emir's moves to give women the right to vote - until finally a bill was pushed through the legislature in May 2005.

Legislators even dared to raise worries - albeit quietly - over the succession of the emir, one of the most taboo subjects in the country when the previous emir, Sheik Jaber, and his appointed successor were both ailing. When Sheik Jaber died in January, parliament removed the planned successor and Sheik Sabah, the late emir's half-brother, stepped in.

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