Women vote in Kuwait election for first time

Women went to the polls 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 comprise 57 per cent of voters.

“It feels like a wedding day,” said Salwa al-Sanoussi, a 45-year-old housewife, 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 them 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.

Even fundamentalist Muslims who opposed giving women the right to vote have campaigned for their support in the weeks heading up to today’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, Sheikh 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 today’s vote. There are more than 340,000 eligible voters, 57 per cent of them women. Polls are open for 12 hours, and the first results are expected late today.

The debate was sparked by a dispute over redrawing the country’s 25 electoral precincts that prompted Sheikh 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 MPs – 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 politicians 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 US 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 politicians 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.

Politicians 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, Sheikh Jaber, and his appointed successor were both ailing.

When Sheikh Jaber died in January, parliament removed the planned successor and Sheikh Sabah, the late emir’s half-brother, stepped in.