Heavy turnout at Kuwait polls as opposition returns

Kuwaitis turned out in large numbers Saturday for the first election contested by the opposition in nearly four years amid fresh disputes over cuts in subsidies due to falling oil revenues.

Turnout was high with some polling stations reporting that 80 percent of eligible voters had cast their ballots by the time polls closed at 8 pm (1700 GMT), according to state-run Kuwait Television.

Vote counting started at some centres but final results are not expected before early Sunday.

Kuwaiti women flash their passports as they arrive to cast their votes at a polling station in Kuwait City on November 26, 2016 ©Yasser Al-Zayyat (AFP)

While Kuwait's two previous elections yielded poor turnout due to opposition boycotts, voters said they were encouraged by seeing their candidates running this time around.

"Their return is needed to strike a political balance in the country. They are more capable of monitoring the government actions," retired voter Ibrahim Al-Tulaihi told AFP at a polling station south of Kuwait City.

"A wise opposition is needed because we don't want more political disputes," Jarrah Mohammad, a government employee, said after casting his ballot.

Unusually for the oil-rich Gulf Arab states, Kuwait has an elected parliament with powers to hold ministers to account, even though senior members of the ruling Al-Sabah family hold all top cabinet posts.

The set-up has led to repeated standoffs between lawmakers and the ruling family and this is the seventh general election in a decade.

The election comes against a backdrop of discontent among Kuwaiti citizens over mounting cutbacks in the cradle-to-grave welfare system they have long enjoyed as a slump in world oil prices hits government revenues.

The emir dissolved the last parliament after MPs called for ministers to be grilled over the cuts to state subsidies.

Islamist opposition candidate Hamad al-Matar, a former MP, said he expects the opposition to win a good number of seats in the 50-member parliament to prevent the government from raising charges.

"There will be no charges on citizens because we have no problem with finances. We have a problem with government management and corruption," Matar told AFP.

The opposition is fielding 30 candidates among a total of 293 hopefuls, including 14 women.

"We want the next parliament to stop the government from hiking prices," said pensioner Maasouma Abdullah.

But others said they could accept a slight raise because of dwindling oil revenues.

"I think we should accept some reasonable raises but not on power and water. Oil revenues have dropped sharply and we should take measures," voter Jabr al-Jalahma told AFP.

- Bleak economic backdrop -

Opposition candidates campaigned heavily for economic and social reform and an end to what they charge is rampant corruption.

The election comes with Kuwait facing its most acute budget crisis in years. Oil income, which accounts for 95 percent of government revenues, has nosedived by 60 percent over the past two years.

Kuwait posted its first budget deficit of $15 billion last year following 16 years of surpluses.

And the emirate has fewer alternatives than its Gulf neighbours, partly because of its elected legislature, analysts say.

"It has built an economic model completely funded by oil and natural gas revenue to support its workforce, but with its empowered parliament it has less flexibility than any other state in the region to abandon that model," US-based intelligence firm Stratfor said in a recent report.

Kuwaiti citizens make up around 30 percent of the emirate's population of 4.4 million. A total of 483,000 are eligible to vote.

A Kuwaiti man writes on his ballot paper before casting his vote for the parliamentary elections at a polling station in Kuwait City on November 26, 2016 ©Yasser Al-Zayyat (AFP) </s> Iraqis head to the polls on Saturday for parliamentary elections.

After the ballot, the 329 members of parliament elected from party lists will be tasked with forming a government and electing a prime minister and president.

Following the 2003 US-led invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq held its first general election in January 2005, selecting a national assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution.

It then held parliamentary elections in December 2005, with two subsequent polls in 2010 and 2014.

Nearly 24.5 million of Iraq’s roughly 38 million people are registered to vote. They are spread out across 18 provinces.

Voters can cast their ballots at 8,959 polling stations across the country, all of which are equipped for electronic voting.

The 285,564 internal refugees eligible to vote can do so in one of 166 polling stations in 70 camps spread across eight provinces in the country.

Voters will select party lists and seats will be divided up according to the number of votes each list secures.

Polling for Iraq’s roughly one million security force personnel and the one million voters living abroad was held ahead of the main election day.

There are 6,990 candidates, including 2,011 women, set to run in the polls.

They will be competing for 329 seats, including nine reserved for minorities — Christians, Shabaks, Yazidis, Mandeans and Fayli Kurds — and 83 for women.

Candidates, selected based on their position in the party, will be elected to four-year terms in parliament.

There are 87 party lists in this year’s election.

The main lists are as follows:

This year, for the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the ranks of the executed leader’s oldest opponents, the Shiite Dawa Party, are divided.

Abadi, a key figure in the Dawa Party, has put together a list composed largely of civil society personalities that cross sectarian lines.

– CONQUEST ALLIANCE, led by Hadi al-Ameri, head of the Badr organisation and a leader of the mostly Shiite Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary units, which played a key role in rolling back Islamic State (IS) group jihadists.

His candidates officially quit their military roles to run for office.

This list relies principally on the Dawa Party, which Maliki heads.

But while it is popular with public servants hired under his mandate, the list suffers from criticisms aimed at Maliki because IS seized one-third of the country under his watch.

It includes mostly secular groups including the Iraqi Communist Party and Istiqama (Arabic for righteousness), a party of technocrats backed by Sadr, who suspended his Ahrar bloc and called on his 33 ministers not to run in the polls.

– SUNNIS appear on several lists. The main list, “The National Alliance”, is led by Vice President Iyad Allawi — a Shiite who presents himself as secular — and Sunni head of parliament Salim al-Juburi.

Weakened after three years of IS rule, Sunnis could be the biggest losers in this year’s elections.

– KURDS will head to polls with divided ranks to fill their northern autonomous region’s 46 seats, two of which are reserved for Christians.

The main Kurdish parties are the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Kurdistan Patriotic Union (PUK).

There are also three opposition parties: the main Jamaa Islamiya, the newly created New Generation movement, and Goran (Kurdish for change).
Kuwait, where citizens make up around 30 percent of the emirate's 4.4 million population, votes in a snap election following parliament's dissolution on 16 October amid the impact of falling oil prices. This is the first election the opposition has not boycotted in nearly four years.