Could the dynamics of democracy be moving finally in the right direction in Kuwait? Sherine Bahaa assesses the results of the Kuwaiti elections "It is the second parliamentary election in 10 months, what would you expect? Kuwaitis got bored and frustrated and opted for new faces," Ghanim Al-Najjar, a lecturer in political science at Kuwait University, said. Victory of four Kuwaiti women candidates, regression of Salafi Islamists as well as the rise of Shia were the net results of the 16 May elections. Finally Kuwaitis had the will to change and the evolution of democracy is proceeding in the right direction. Democracy has been a source of pride for Kuwaitis especially with their envious autocratic Arab neighbours. In Kuwait, there is a powerful parliament that decides legislation and sets the emir's salary, a free judiciary, and Kuwaiti women were granted their political rights to vote and stand for elections. It was the 12th time Kuwaiti nationals have gone to polls. In this week's elections, Kuwaitis elected 21 new faces, indicating a lack of public confidence in the previous parliament. "The number of new faces is not big, but it is the qualitative shift that matters more," reiterated Al-Najjar to Al-Ahram Weekly. "The success of Kuwaiti women is the most significant aspect in the election, it is a landslide victory, to have four out of the five [heavyweight contenders] is such a remarkable change," Al-Najjar stressed. All four women have doctorates from the United States, a symbol of the effect higher education levels for women across the Gulf is having on society. The Muslim Brotherhood (Islamic Constitutional Movement) dropped to only one member of parliament from three in the previous parliament. The Salafi Islamic Grouping dropped from five members to two. However, many independent Islamists did well, and in the areas where tribal tickets dominate the voting (4th and 5th districts), many of the winners have Islamist orientations. Liberals did better than in the recent past, powered by the women candidates, all of whom can be classified, more or less, as liberals. Shia were not badly off either, nearly doubling their representation from five to nine members. Shia representation is now closer to a reflection of the electoral map, where Shia constitute 20 per cent of the population. Kuwaiti voters shunned organised political groups and preferred independent candidates. This said, it is clear that such results will provide some reassurance to those who fear that more democracy in the Middle East will necessarily hand power to the forces of radical Islam. "This will never be the case in our country," said Al-Najjar. "Islamists here have joined the political process like any other political power; they had their own setbacks and were severely criticised. Thus it is only natural that they lose some of their base." It remains to be seen whether the new assembly will last longer than 10 months, the period that the 2008 Majlis Al-Umma (House of the Nation) lasted. The political upheaval has become all the more worrisome because it has virtually frozen development at a time when Kuwait is grappling with the global financial crisis and falling oil revenues, which account for 90 per cent of government income. "The future of Kuwait is at stake," said Rola Dashti, one of the four women who won in the elections. "We've had our ups and downs. I think we learned from the downs and we're ready to move ahead," she said. MPs who spearheaded the challenges to the government in the last parliament have almost all been re-elected. It is difficult to predict what will happen now, with observers hinting at a possible reappointment of former prime minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohamed. "The government must try to comprehend the results of the elections and act accordingly, now that there are new faces in the parliament which are willing to cooperate. The government has to focus on this or else we will have the same crisis again," Al-Najjar explained. Political life in Kuwait has been going in a systematic pattern that has repeated itself on and on for the past three years. Five cabinets -- a sixth is to be formed within days -- and three elections have taken place in a short period of time, besides the emir has consistently reappointed Sheikh Nasser, his nephew, as the prime minister. It is the same old story of rivalry between parliament and the cabinet. All that is needed is for any 10 MPs to question any of the government ministers and request a no confidence vote, which can lead to the cabinet resigning. Then either the emir dissolves the House and calls for early elections, or the emir appoints a new government but with the same old faces. According to Ahmed Baghdadi, a progressive Kuwaiti intellectual, if the Kuwaiti emir reappoints Sheikh Nasser again as well as the same interior minister, then "we have to expect a series of minister grillings. There are MPs hostile to the old interior minister due to his detention of a handful of Islamists before the elections," Baghdadi told the Weekly. However, since political parties are banned in Kuwait, lawmakers tend to form only loose blocs and can easily shift alliances depending on the issue at stake, making it hard to predict how well the new assembly will work with the cabinet. One of the first tests of the new assembly's willingness to work with the government will be the $5 billion economic stimulus package, which had faced parliamentary opposition. "The economic plan will be a cause of crisis in the next assembly," said political analyst Shamlan Al-Eissa. "They [MPs] could team up and oppose the law."
