Kuwait: The two women candidates on Friday were elected as representatives of the Kuwaiti National Assembly. With this, women returned to the Kuwaiti Parliament after two years.
Jenan Mohsin Ramadan Boushehri and Alia Faisal Al Khaled were elected as part of the opposition, who won the majority of seats in the election on Thursday.
48-year-old, writer and thinker Alia Faisal Al Khaled, won the seats in the second constituency with 2,365 votes.
Al Khaled said in statements to local media that she only ran for Kuwait, adding, “We will work for Kuwait … our goal is one, we will fight with love … so that Kuwait is in a better situation.”
48-year-old, former Minister Jenan Mohsin Ramadan Boushehri, won from the third constituency with 4,321 votes.
“Whenever there is a woman who carries the issues and aspirations of the voters, there is no problem (for the voter) to vote for her,” Jenan Boushehri said.
She added in a message she sent to her voters, “I will speak with your voice, preserve your rights and protect your interests in the next assembly.”
Women had won the right to vote and stand as a candidate in 2005 but had failed to get elected during the previous ballot in 2020.
On Friday, September 30, Jinan took to Twitter and thanked everyone for standing by her side, and wishing that she would be at the best of everyone’s expectations.
Kuwait announced, on Friday, the results of the legislative elections, in which 313 candidates competed for 50 seats representing the elected National Assembly.
According to the election results, the opposition won 28 of the 50 parliament seats, while 20 former deputies lost their seats, including 3 former ministers.
Two jailed candidates won
In a precedent, the first in Kuwait, the two candidates, Marzouq Al-Khalifa and Hamid Al-Bathali, were able to win membership in the National Assembly while they were in prison.
On Thursday, September 29, the polls in Kuwait closed their doors, after voters went to cast their votes in the elections for the new National Assembly, which will succeed the 2021 Assembly, which was dissolved by an Emiri decree, in June.
A new government will be appointed after the elections to take the oath before the elected parliament.
These elections came after the Emir of the country dissolved the previous council due to the clash between the legislative and executive authorities, as the opposition with an Islamic background was demanding the removal of the heads of government and parliament from the political scene, which is achieved in these elections.
Kuwait is the first country in the Gulf region to establish an elected parliament, in 1963, and it has a parliament that is the most powerful in the region, and it is capable of enacting legislation and holding the government accountable, but the final say, in the end, is up to the Emir.
