Ammar Hassan conducted an interview with the Kuwaiti Political writer Mr. Abdullah Al Ghanim on Kuwaiti elections’ results exclusively for Eurasia Diary
Ammar Hassan: Firstly, this election recorded a high turnout with participation of 68 percent of voters, what is your explanation for this number? Could high turnout have a negative side?
Abdullah Al Ghanim: There are two main reasons explain the high turnout in this election. First, adopting the “one vote” system resulted in a boycott for four years. However, the boycotters have decided, eventually, to participate, thus enormous voters were urged to vote to mitigate the implications of the “one vote” law. Second, from a public point of view the previous Parliament was “weak” and was not able to question or oppose the austerity measures taken by the government. Therefore, the participation in this election was an attempt to replace the previous “weak” Parliament with a “strong” one.
Ammar Hassan: The winning of several young candidates was remarkable; from your point of view, do you think this result is exceptional and striking?
Abdullah Al Ghanim: I would say it is, comparing to the last two decades, yet, I do not think this state will remain in the next election. Although I hope the youth experience would be successful and become a part of electing culture in the future, but there are obstacles face young candidates. For example, most of those candidates come from the third electoral district and this does not make any surprise due to the absence of main figures; if, for instance, Mr. Ahmad Alsadun, Faisal Alyahya, Saleh Almulla, Faisal Alumsallam and Faisal Alshaya had participated in the election, the young candidates would have very low chances to win. And the same is applicable for the second district; the absence of Mr. Mohammad Al sager gave an opportunity for youth to win but Mr. Al Sager is expected to participate in the next elections which will probably change the results. Therefore, I think the current results are exceptional and the number of winners will reduce if the previous figures participate in the future.
Ammar Hassan: In your opinion what was the reason of the low Tribal representation in the parliament despite the enormous tribal candidates?
Abdullah Al Ghanim: You can find the answer in the question; the high number of candidates from each tribe and the vast competition amongst themselves distracted tribes’ voters. However, the result was not surprising due to the novelty of experience. Nevertheless, the tribal modest representation will be temporary and tribes are expected to enjoy better representation whether the voting system changed or not.
Ammar Hassan: Mrs. Safa Al Hashem was the only woman who succeeded to reserve a seat in the Parliament; how do you explain women’s modest representation in the parliament after a decade of granting women’s suffrage?
Abdullah Al Ghanim: In fact, Mrs. Al Hashem was expected to gain the majority of votes in her district since she was the only female candidate in a district that more than 50 percent of voters are women. However, she could not achieve that which indicates to decline in her popularity. The reason for that decline could be her resign from the previous parliament. Besides, the changes of her discourse toward the government when the latter ceased its support to her political partner Ali Alrashed who sought to be the Parliament President.
Finally, Mrs. Al Hashem might have limited chances to win if more female candidates participate in the coming elections.
Ammar Hassan: “If the reformist MPs were honest” you tweeted “they should not approve the government budget for the current year if the cabinet remains without changes” what are your remarks on the previous cabinet?
Abdullah Al Ghanim: An article might fall behind explaining the remarks but the most important are the offending act, DNA identification act, Austerity measures and sports’ suspension. In addition, the lack of economic vision and plans coping with the future challenges.
Besides, the imbalance between the high employment demand and the governmental offer. And last but not least, the lack of professionality in dealing with the small and medium enterprise sector and the huge amount of public money spent in murky channels. All that and more made a considerable segment of citizens skeptical about particular figures in the previous cabinet.
Ammar Hassan: After four years of boycotting the elections, the opposition MPs returned and won more than half of the Parliament seats. How would this affect the Parliament – Government relationship?
Abdullah Al Ghanim: First of all, there several issues should be considered and taken into account to ensure a better political life in the country and to mitigate the state of polarization:
i. The Parliament should reconsider the distribution of the electoral districts and the electoral system as soon as possible to settle the dispute. In that sense, ten electoral districts could be a compromise between the government and the opposition.
ii. Regarding to the Parliament President, the candidate should be independent and not considered to be a member of any bloc. In other words, the candidate should not be too close to the government or extremist in his or her opposition to the government.
On the other hand, the government may consider the following for better performance:
i. Exclude former ministers – except the ministers from the family – from the new cabinet.
ii. New ministers should review former ministers’ decisions and abolish decisions which passed for electoral purposes.
iii. Apart of young MPs, the new cabinet should include young and educated figures and this should be applicable for all ministries, with keeping brothers Al Khaled and Al Abdullah.
iv. Ministry of education should be assigned to an independent figure.
Ammar Hassan: Which MP do you think is the most likely to be the Parliament President?
Abdullah Al Ghanim: In my opinion, Mr Marzog Al Ghanim has great chances to be the next president even if the majority opposed him. However, leading a parliamentary bloc could be more beneficial and it may enhance his chances to be a president in the future. The problem in the current Parliament is that the majority from the opposition and this will lead to two challenges for the President. First, it is hard to lead a Parliament which majority belongs to the opposition. Second, some could argue that the president is not a minister therefore the majority cannot influence him as same as a Minister. This argument is true to a certain extent, yet, the majority can affect the President by involving him in their disputes with the government. Thus, there are a scenario where the chances of “winning” are very high and, in contrast, there is a scenario where the chances of “surviving” are very low.
Instead Mr Al Ghanim can use a different tactic which is withdrawing from running for Presidency in favor of Mr. Abdullah Al Rumi, in this case he would be able to break the opposition’s majority by allying with Mr. Al Rumi. In this way, Mr. Al Ghanem will lead the majority and own the rights of “Veto, non – cooperation, legislation and supervision”. In other words, he will lead the Parliamentary majority which is the “source of power”.
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Ammar Hassan: In the light of elections’ results, what are the expected scenarios for the political life in Kuwait?
Abdullah Al Ghanim : I believe that, if the twenty-six MPs rally around one agenda, the Parliament will be dissolved soon. Moreover, political circumstances, historical events and the electoral process all of that bare indicators that this Parliament is going to be dissolved. Finally, in the light of elections where the opposition won the majority of seats, if no actions would be taken to resolve the previously mentioned issues the Parliament might be dissolve in a year.
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