Radical charge or normal politics? The 2006 election Kuwait

Koweit held in first parliamentary elections in 2006 which included women as fully enfranchised citizens with the right to hold public office. This election is unprecented and well ahead of schedule in reforms that were proposed years ago. While women did seize the opportunity and ran for office, none were elected. Important structural changes took place in creating the culture of participatory democracy. This study details the major political participants and the competing factions that are in the throes of stabilizing a viable political culture of participation. For the region as a whole, the elections in Kuwait represent a successful milestone in the steps that arte presently underway to achieve democracy. Most observers agree that the 2006 parliamentary election in Kuwait marked a dramatic, pro-democratic shift in Kuwaiti politics because women participated as candidates and voters in a national election for the first time. The sudden reversal of decades of parliamentary opposition to women's political rights was both unexpected and thorought. Despite Islamist attempts to limit the extension of womens rights either to municipal elections only or merely to voting and not running for office, the final version approved by the parliament in May 2005 conferred full citizenship rights on Kuwaiti women despite the last-minute inclusion of a phrase requiring that their participation in elections conform to Islamic principles.