National Assembly elections in Kuwait The beginning of a new political era

On September 30, 2022, the results of the National Assembly elections, were announced in Kuwait. This is the eighteenth election in the council's history, since its establishment in 1963.The Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, had ordered the dissolution of the National Assembly on June 22, 2022, in an attempt "to resort to the people to re-correct the political track."

In the new council, the opposition won 30 out of 50 seats. The constitutional movement and the Salafi currents won 10 deputies. The results also showed the election of 9 Shiite MPs, although some of these MPs won the Sunni votes due to considerations of their national and non-sectarian societal image.

Among the most prominent winners in the elections is the former Speaker of the National Assembly, Ahmed Al-Saadoun, 87 years old, who won won the highest number of votes, and is believed to win the presidency of the council.

On the other hand, Marzouq Al-Ghanim, who assumed the presidency of the council from 2013 to 2022, is no longer in the parliament; as he did not run in these elections, and had previously announced a sit-in by parliamentarians to demand the change of the heads of parliament and the government.

Among the most prominent results of these elections is that the new council witnessed a process of wide change, as it witnessed the entry of 27 new members, or more than half of the members of the council, of whom 15 deputies obtained a parliamentary seat for the first time ever.

This indicator can be considered as a title for the elections, and even as a heading for the entire political era, as Kuwait has been witnessing for months the renewal of the leadership class in government agencies led by Crown Prince Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah at all levels, as it included senior leaders in the civil, security and military institutions , under various banners, from fighting corruption to fighting slackness in the state’s administrative apparatus, and injecting young blood into it.

The National Assembly elections do not deviate much from this trend, as the former parliament speaker in particular represented one of the most prominent faces of the previous phase, and therefore his exit from the political scene, in parallel with a major change in the structure of the parliament itself, means the end of a phase that most of its symbols are no longer there today.

It is noted that the end of the previous era took place at an unexpected speed due to the firmness of the Crown Prince in his orientations to change leaders and because of the popular momentum compatible with the directions of the Amiri Diwan to end that era with all its symbols, leaders, trends and priorities.

It can be said that these elections are the inauguration of a new era, in which Kuwait is trying to get out of the consequences of political, economic and social problems that have accumulated during the previous era, and that they are historical elections that hold opportunities for the reform bloc before the government to open a new page in dealing with crises facing the citizen and the state.