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A Kuwaiti woman votes at a polling station in Salwa, Kuwait City, during the country's parliamentary elections, June 29. (?AP/WWP)
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30 June 2006
Kuwaiti Women Remain Determined After Landmark Election, June 29, 2006(Kuwait marks first election with women candidates, voters)
By Lea Terhune
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Women went to the polls for the first time in Kuwait on June 29,as voters and as candidates, making history in this small, oil-rich emirate on the Persian Gulf. None of the 27 women candidates won, but Kuwaiti women remain upbeat about the outcome.
Rola Dashti, a 42-year-old, U.S.-educated economist who garnered the highest number of votes among the women candidates, 1,539, told Reuters, “We’ll keep up our struggle and will fight until we see women in parliament.”
The U.S. State Department was quick to congratulate the government of Kuwait, a long-time ally, on the landmark parliamentary elections. State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said, “Participation by all citizens – male and female – was robust. The turn-out demonstrates the universal value of democracy across cultures and religions.”
Kuwait adopted a constitutional government in the 1960s, the first Gulf country to do so. The 50-seat national assembly is elected, but may be dissolved by the ruling emir, traditionally from the Al-Sabah family. When, in 1999, then Emir Jaber al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah issued a decree in favor of enfranchising women, conservative members of parliament rejected the measure. Both men and women activists fought for women’s suffrage for another six years, as religious and tribal conservatives consistently derailed it. Women finally won the right to vote and run for office when a suffrage bill passed in May 2005.
Kuwaiti women had expected to have until 2007 to prepare for their first elections. Then Kuwait’s ruler, Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah dissolved parliament on May 21 over a dispute related to election redistricting. He ordered elections for June 29. This gave aspiring women politicians five weeks to campaign.
Female voters make up 57 percent of the 340,000-strong Kuwaiti electorate. State media said that overall turnout was high at 65 percent, but only 35 percent of women voted.
Another candidate, Salwa Saeed, 33, told Reuters, “I’m not surprised with the result. I just wanted to start preparing for the next election by experiencing the whole thing myself. For me, this time was a rehearsal.” She plans to build upon her experience and gear up for the next election.
