JEDDAH/KUWAIT, 27 October 2004 — Ignoring stiff opposition from Islamist deputies, the emir of Kuwait Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah opened the new session of the National Assembly (Parliament) yesterday with an ambitious reform program for women including the right to vote and seek public office in all elections.
The Cabinet in May approved a bill to amend the election law granting women the franchise. The bill was signed by the emir and sent to Parliament.
“This is a historic move,” said Mouna Al-Dashti, who has been campaigning for women’s rights in Kuwait for years. “We hope this time we get positive results.”
With the government seen more determined than ever, the bill has a good chance of passing through the assembly, analysts said yesterday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Ahmad Al-Jaber has been lobbying the parliamentarians on this issue for weeks. The bill is believed to have at least 15 firm supporters in the 50-seat Parliament with a further 12 regarded as persuadable. Because Cabinet members can also vote in the assembly, the bill could muster as many as 35 votes, enough to pass.
“The government considers the issue as a priority,” Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd Al-Sabah, one of the most influential members of the ruling family, said yesterday. “We will ask the assembly to speed up the process of issuing the law.”
Women’s enfranchisement will expand the voter base in Kuwait, where only 15 percent of a 950,000-strong population is eligible voters. Some deputies have tabled bills calling for servicemen to be allowed to vote, and for lowering the voting age to 18 from 21. Another idea is to reduce the number of electoral constituencies from 25 to 10 to prevent narrow local coalitions that often favor the Islamists.
The new nine-month session of the Parliament opens as Kuwait is enjoying its best economic indicators since the oil shock of the mid-1970s. It is on track for the highest income in three decades and a sixth consecutive year of budget surplus thanks to record high oil prices.
On the economic front, the assembly is scheduled to debate the controversial Project Kuwait, a $7 billion investment by foreign oil majors to develop the country’s northern oil fields, close to the Iraqi border.
Some deputies have warned that the project will not pass without stringent legal controls to prevent the nation’s main natural resources from falling into the hands of foreigners.
The newly opened session is expected to witness some testing moments because at least six ministers face grilling and the possibility of being voted out of office. Targets include the ministers of information and justice and the state minister for Cabinet affairs. The ministers of health, energy and communications may also face the same threat.
Analysts see the government’s reformist blitz as a sign that it is prepared to take the Islamists head on.
Several Islamist deputies have vowed to submit a motion to amend the constitution in a bid to make Shariah, or Islamic law, the only — instead of a major — source of legislation. Similar attempts were rejected in the past.
