Following Kuwaiti politics perhaps isn't on the top of your agenda, but it is interesting.
The elections are over. Everything is back to normal. The roads that were literally littered with an unrelenting bombardment of billboards with 6 ft faces of the candidates are now clear.
The huge evening meets that took place on the roadsides in huge airconditioned tents every evening for weeks are over. The bribes are paid and collected. Women voted (well 35% of them anyway) but to the relief of the men they respectfully followed the men's lead and voted men in and failed to coordinate themselves (the two strongest female candidates only got 1,000 or so votes, well short of the winning post, and both were in the same voting district; some only got one or two votes). The 'new Cabinet' is by and large the old Cabinet - only three of the Cabinet are new. And guess what, here's a novelty - the Cabinet only includes one elected MP! Go democracy!
In journalism speak, 'a local source who didn't wish to be named' told me last night over shisha and kebabs in the old souk that the Parliament might actually be dissolved in the not too distant future because there were guaranteed to be a lot of antagonism between. And the MPs are probably feeling a little glum since the Cabinet was announced. They'd campaigned against one individual, I think the nephew of the Emir, from continuing as a minister. The Emir, being a reasonable and objective man, evidently took this on board and did not name him as minister. Apparently though he appointed him as head of internal security! Ooops, that back fired.
But the new MPs do have a reason to be happy. Today they get their huge salary, cars, drivers etc. In fact this package of official and unofficial perks is so huge some people running for election apparently spent in excess of 1 million KD (2 million pounds) on their campaigns and bribes.
The elections are over. Everything is back to normal. The roads that were literally littered with an unrelenting bombardment of billboards with 6 ft faces of the candidates are now clear.
The huge evening meets that took place on the roadsides in huge airconditioned tents every evening for weeks are over. The bribes are paid and collected. Women voted (well 35% of them anyway) but to the relief of the men they respectfully followed the men's lead and voted men in and failed to coordinate themselves (the two strongest female candidates only got 1,000 or so votes, well short of the winning post, and both were in the same voting district; some only got one or two votes). The 'new Cabinet' is by and large the old Cabinet - only three of the Cabinet are new. And guess what, here's a novelty - the Cabinet only includes one elected MP! Go democracy!In journalism speak, 'a local source who didn't wish to be named' told me last night over shisha and kebabs in the old souk that the Parliament might actually be dissolved in the not too distant future because there were guaranteed to be a lot of antagonism between. And the MPs are probably feeling a little glum since the Cabinet was announced. They'd campaigned against one individual, I think the nephew of the Emir, from continuing as a minister. The Emir, being a reasonable and objective man, evidently took this on board and did not name him as minister. Apparently though he appointed him as head of internal security! Ooops, that back fired.
But the new MPs do have a reason to be happy. Today they get their huge salary, cars, drivers etc. In fact this package of official and unofficial perks is so huge some people running for election apparently spent in excess of 1 million KD (2 million pounds) on their campaigns and bribes.
No comments:
Post a Comment