Kuwait - Parliament Election 2003
Citizens do not have the right to change their government. The Constitution provides that the elected National Assembly has a limited role in approving the Amir's choice of Crown Prince (the future Amir). If the Assembly rejects the Amir's nominee, the Amir then submits three names from which the Assembly must choose the new Crown Prince. There is no universal suffrage. The only citizens who have the right to vote and seek election to the National Assembly are males age 21 and over who have been citizens for at least 20 years and are not members of the armed forces, police, or other uniformed personnel of the Ministry of Interior.
Under the Constitution, the Amir holds executive power and shares legislative power with an elected National Assembly. The Amir appoints the Prime Minister, who presides over a 16-member Cabinet (Council of Ministers), who he chooses in consultation with the Amir. In accordance with the practice of the ruling family (but not specifically the Constitution), the Prime Minister always has been the Crown Prince; however, in an unprecedented development in July, the Amir named one of his younger brothers, not the Crown Prince, as Prime Minister; the new Prime Minister promptly formed a new Cabinet.
The Constitution empowers the Amir to suspend its provisions and to rule by decree. The Constitution provides that cabinet members sit in the National Assembly and vote on legislation. At least one member of the Cabinet must be an elected member of the National Assembly.
There are 50 elected National Assembly members. Members serve 4-year terms, and the most recent National Assembly elections were held in July. The Government banned political parties; however, several well-organized and unofficial blocs, acting much like political parties, existed and were active in the National Assembly. The Government acknowledged and, at times, worked with these blocs, which were organized on the basis of common ideological goals. Because of the ban on political parties, National Assembly candidates must nominate themselves as individuals and may run for election in any of the country's 25 constituencies. The top two finishers in each constituency are elected in single-round balloting.
The Constitution provides that the National Assembly can overturn the Amir's decrees, but only those made when the National Assembly is not in session. The National Assembly exercised this authority in previous years in some cases; however, the National Assembly did not amend any of the Amir's proposals during the year.
Members regularly require ministers to appear before the full National Assembly for formal question sessions when they are dissatisfied with their or the Government's performance. On occasion, pressure exerted by the National Assembly, including through votes of no confidence, has led to the resignation or removal of ministers.
A law promulgated in 1998 bans primaries previously conducted by religious sects and tribes; however, such primaries or by-elections, which are limited to tribal members and do not include all eligible voters in a given electoral constituency, continued in practice.
Kuwaitis went to the polls on 5 July 2003 to elect the members of the new Parliament amid tremendous changes taking place in the region, including the toppling of the Iraqi regime and developments in the Middle East peace process as well as reforms in certain Arab states.
The election campaign was dominated by such major topics as political reforms, imposition of the Islamic Sharia and economic issues. Some 276 candidates were competing for 50 seats in Parliament. The two main groups in the running were the liberals and the Islamists, who hold opposing views concerning the reforms and the Sharia. While the liberals stress the need to continue political reforms in the country, including extending the vote to women and the request that the royal family relinquish some of its powers, the Islamists call for political, economic and administrative change through imposition of the Islamic Sharia.
Some 136,000 Kuwaitis out of a total population of 885,000, were eligible to vote. Kuwaiti women have no right to vote or stand for election. The outgoing Parliament had blocked a tentative government bid in 1999 to grant women voting rights. On polling day, as the men voted, the women protested their exclusion from the polls.
There are no political parties in Kuwait. Government supporters won 14 of the 50 seats at stake, an increase of two. Islamists obtained 21 seats, an increase of one. Liberals and their supporters obtained just three seats, a massive drop from the 14 they had in the outgoing Parliament. The remaining 12 seats went to independent candidates, a large increase from the four they had held in the last Parliament.
On 13 July 2003, the Emir, Sheikh Jabir, appointed a new Prime minister, separating the post from the role of heir to the throne for the first time. Some days later, on 19 July 2003, the newly elected National Assembly held its first sitting and re-elected Mr. Jasem Mohammad Abdulmuhsen Al Khurafi as its Speaker.
The July 2003 National Assembly elections were generally free and fair, although there were some credible reports of government and opposition vote buying, illegal and unevenly held tribal primaries (by-elections), ballot box tampering in some constituencies, and lax enforcement of some election laws. Recounts were ordered and undertaken in 2 of the 25 electoral districts due to allegations of vote fraud. During the year, candidates from several constituencies filed court petitions challenging the July National Assembly election results on allegations of ballot box tampering. In December, the Constitutional Court dismissed these petitions.
Women continued to be denied the right to vote and run for office and had little opportunity to influence government. There were no women in the 50-seat National Assembly and no women in the Cabinet. Women held some relatively senior nonpolitical positions within some ministries.
The new Prime Minister appointed 1 minority Shi'a member to the 16-member Cabinet as the Minister of Information. Of 50 National Assembly members, 5 were Shi'a (after the July elections).
Several tribes conducted illegal primaries (by-elections) to select candidates for participation in the National Assembly elections held in July. Such primaries are limited to tribe members and thus do not include all eligible voters in a given electoral constituency. Some Shi'a claimed that if they had held such primaries as other groups did (in violation of election laws), they would have gained more seats in the National Assembly. In December, the National Assembly's Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee approved requests from the Public Prosecutor to lift the parliamentary immunity of four parliamentarians suspected of participation in illegal tribal primaries held before the July elections.
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