KUWAIT CITY, 3 May 2005 — Kuwait’s Parliament failed yesterday to pass a law giving women the right for the first time to vote and stand in municipal elections.
“Parliament will vote again on the bill tomorrow,” MP Ali Al-Rashed told reporters after 29 lawmakers voted in favor of the legislation while the same number abstained and two voted against.
Islamist and tribal legislators are staunchly opposed to giving women in the Gulf state the right to participate in municipal or parliamentary elections.
Under Parliament rules, abstaining MPs are counted as absent, meaning the chamber did not achieve the required quorum of 33 yesterday. The Parliament is made up of 50 elected MPs plus 15 ministers who are ex-officio members.
“The law is in limbo,” speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi said. Parliament on April 19 approved the law in principle but scheduled a second round of voting, which was supposed to be final. It took place yesterday.
Those who voted in favor last week included 13 Cabinet ministers as well as liberal and Shiite MPs. Tribal and Islamist lawmakers voted against the bill.
Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said after that vote he was confident Kuwaiti women would get their full political rights during the current parliamentary term which ends in June and said he would appoint a female Cabinet minister once women are enfranchised.
