‘Elections On Steroids’: Kuwait, Under New Emir, Votes Yet Again

Election-weary Kuwait voted for the third time in three years on Thursday, just months into the reign of a new emir but with no end in sight to the major oil exporter’s chronic political paralysis.
Parliamentary polls have become an annual occurrence for the OPEC member country, which has seven percent of the world’s oil reserves and the monarchical Gulf’s most powerful elected assembly.
However, the national assembly’s clashes with the royal-appointed cabinet have caused constant stalemate, delaying much-needed reforms.
“These elections are different,” retired health worker Sheikha Yaqoub Al-Aziz said, after she cast her vote at a women-only polling station in the Jabriya area.
“We hope that the interests of the citizens and the country will be achieved, similar to other Gulf countries, and that services will develop.”
Almost 835,000 voters are eligible to choose 50 MPs from 200 candidates, including just 13 women, in only the second Kuwaiti election held during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.