Kuwait Times

Published Date: May 09, 2009
By B Izzak, Staff Writer

KUWAIT: After the withdrawal door closed yesterday, 211 candidates, including 16 women, were left in the race for the 50 National Assembly seats when 15 candidates pulled out on the last day.

This is the lowest number of candidates for many years, much lower than last year's 275 hopefuls and more than 300 who contested the 2006 general elections.
The 16 women in the race is also the lowest number of female candidates since women were granted political rights. In the past two elections, a total of 54 women ran but without success. In districts, 45 candidates are running in the first and second districts each, 54 in the third, 35 in the fourth and 32 candidates in the fifth.

Of the 211 candidates, 36 are members in the dissolved house which means that even before polling starts, 28 percent of the assembly membership will change. Among former MPs who did not register are one each from the second and third districts, four from the fourth and as many as eight from the fifth. Seven of them did not register voluntarily either on health or political grounds, while the remaining seven were forced out by losing in the tribal primary elections.
Former prominent MPs who are not standing include Mohammad Al-Saqer, Nasser Al-Sane, Hussein Al-Quwaian, Essam Al-Dabbous, Fahad Al-Azemi, Marzouk Al-Hubaini and Abdullah Al-Barghash.

In addition, there are 16 former MPs from previous assemblies. They include veteran liberal Abdullah Al-Nibari, Mohammad Al-Khalifa, Khudair Al-Enezi and Mubarak Al-Khrainej.

Regarding women, two each are standing in the first and second districts, eight in the third, three in the fourth and only one in the fifth. Prominent among women hopefuls are Maasouma Al-Mubarak, Salwa Al-Jassar, Aseel Al-Awadhi, Fatima Al-Abdali, Rula Dashti and Thekra Al-Rasheedi.

After two failed attempts in the 2006 and 2008 elections, women are hoping to bag at least one seat in this election, while some observers expected them to win as many as four seats.

Local pollsters are predicting that Jassar, Awadhi and Dashti will win, while Mubarak is in 12th position in her constituency. Several political groups are fielding candidates in the election. The liberal Democratic Forum has three candidates while the Islamic Salaf Alliance is fielding five candidates, including four former MPs.

The Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, has not officially fielded any candidate but at least five of its members are running, with two more supporters.

The Popular Action Bloc has at least four candidates including former MPs Ahmad Al-Saadoun, Mussallam Al-Barrak and Mohammad Al-Khalifa. It has at least two more supporters.

The Shiite National Islamic Alliance is fielding three candidates including former MPs Adnan Abdulsamad and Ahmad Lari, while the Shiite Peace and Justice is fielding two candidates including former MP Saleh Ashour.

Tribes in the fourth and fifth districts have held tribal primary elections. The Rasheedi are fielding four candidates in the fourth district, teh Mutairi are fielding four in the same district, while two other tribal alliances are fielding four candidates each.

In the fifth, the main Awazem and Ajman tribes are fielding four candidates each, while two other tribal alliances are contesting with four candidates each. Due to the more solid tribal alliances in this year's election, major candidates are not assured of winning the four seats they normally won in previous election.

Each constituency elects 10 members to the National Assembly but each voter is allowed to cast a maximum of four votes. Counting of votes is manual and results are expected to be announced in the early hours of May 17.