A critical view of Kuwait elections

Kuwait is a truly democratic country not because I am saying but this is what has been proved before and even on Thursday 2nd February, 2012.

No denying that fact that Al-Sabah is the ruling family of the country from day one and come what may al the three top slots in the power corridor namely its head of state (Amir); 2^nd in command (Crown Prince) and head of government (Prime Minister) are always from none but Al-Sabah family. However, it has an elected parliament too where 50 members are elected directly by the voters and undoubtedly at times some of MPs had very rough and tough time with the executive and resultantly some of the parliaments like the last one could not complete their mandated tenure of 4 years and were dissolved prematurely.

Kuwait is divided into 5 electoral zones and each zone will elect 5 members to complete a parliament of 50 members. Each Kuwaiti voter excluding those working for armed forces and or ministry of interior are entitled to cast his / her vote for 4 candidates as against just one candidate which is general practice in most of the countries including my beloved Pakistan. Kuwait is also a male dominated society and hence here Kuwaiti women were barred to vote and or contest election but since many MPs and NGOs had been advocating for the same, Kuwait parliament passed the laws and local women were conferred the political rights on16th May 2005. Kuwaiti women contested in 2006 election but unluckily none of them could win a seat. However, the last parliament which was dissolved in December 2011 had 4 lady MPs but as the bad luck had it, this time neither the previous 4 lady MPs nor new entrants could win a seat meaning by this time it is again fully man dominated parliament.

It is universally admitted fact that in election or any other contest for that matter, all neither win nor do all lose but nevertheless there must be some reasonable and logical rationale between those who win and lose and not otherwise. I am more perplexed than wondered to note that how there could be so much gap between the two who topped the list and who was placed at the bottom of the list. I am not personifying the persons for very obvious reasons but still simply cannot help quoting the statistical figures. In electoral zone one, where 10 members are to elected, the most successful candidate who got 1^st position bagged 14,094 votes while the 10^th one captured 7,619 votes which is quite reasonable and understandable but how the 61^st contestant in the zone could get just 29 votes. Likewise, in electoral zone number two, the top parliamentarian got 8,475 votes while his 10^th colleague from same constituency bagged 4,643 votes whereas only 13 votes could be pocketed by the 58^th contestant in the contest. The situation is almost very much similar in the remaining three electoral zones as well. What prompted them to contest when their score could be so terribly low except?  Perhaps they knew what is destined for them but yet they wished to be in history books of Kuwait mentioning that they had at least contested the election-show of gust against those who did not dare to risk their reputation and burn money.

The present parliament is dominated by those who are at least not pro government if not anti to government and the coming weeks will be very testing time both for the legislature as well as the executive as to how they proceed further. Regretfully the past parliament which H. H. Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, Amir dissolved in December 2011 had too many head on collisions with the then Prime Minister H. H. Sheikh Naser Al- Mohammad Al Sabah and despite all out efforts of Amir and PM, honorable parliamentarians had taken a very firm stand not to tolerate any further and bluntly asked Amir to remove PM which eventually ended up in his ouster and calling for new elections.

Doesn’t it prove in quite crystal clear terms without any ambiguity and shadow of doubt that Kuwait is a truly democratic country where at times even the ruling family bows to the voice of the people? Long live the people of Kuwait and the ruling family since you have truly defined democracy.

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With my honest and solemn prayers