Election Fever
I have a very dear friend who will say “I don’t have a dog in that fight” and that is the way I feel about your upcoming elections. You (Kuwait, Kuwait leadership, Kuwait people) are in our prayers for a fair election, and that you elect good leadership. You know what a mess it has been; it would be nice to elect people who can work with the government to get things done.
So I don’t have a clue who those people would be, but I know YOU do.
Here is what tickles me, what I can’t resist commenting on from this morning’s Kuwait Times:
ELECTION FEVER GRIPS STATE
Tribes, groups move to chose candidates • Eligible voters rise to 361,000 including 200,000 women
Holy Smokes! Almost FORTY THOUSAND more women voters than men voters??? Woooo HOOOOOO, Kuwaiti women!
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Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 
It didn’t make a difference in 2006. More men voted for women than women who voted for women.
I hope they learn from their mistakes. These men have been in power for over 40 years. time for a change.
gender will not play a big role in this election as it didn’t the last election. The last election was a single-issue election (pretty much): re-districting.
I wonder what will mark this election, although I know it’s not gender.
Women voters are merely supportive granted votes for men candidates. A woman doesn’t trust another woman in this country, not only on A political level but on work-wise level.
I hope that you tell me who’s the right candidate 🙂
I’m leaning towards going there and submitting a blank voting paper or I might write on it “For the sake of Kuwait”
My understanding is that many contenders are making an issue about the destruction of private diwaniyyas built on public property, and about getting an additional pay raise for Kuwaiti citizens. Others candidates are running on fiscal responsiblity and getting Kuwait moving toward the future. It will be an interesting election.
Chirp – it’s that way in almost every country when women first get the vote. Slowly, slowly, they gain more confidence. And . . . voting is done by SECRET ballot, woooo Hooooooooo!
GE&B – I’m hearing a theme here – I remember in the last election some women held election diwaniyyas, too. At least the women seem to be interested in the issues!
Touche’ – I don’t know who the right candidates are. You will have to go to all those diwaniyyas for me, listen, and then give us a clue in your blog. 😉
I’m not voting this time. They’re all worthless if you ask me, focusing on trivial issues while this country is stagnating.
Btw, women outnumber men in this country…I think.
Here’s an interesting analysis of what’s going on Kuwait, I posted it on my Facebook:
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSL1992712020080323?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
My advice:
Vote for Liberals 🙂
And please don’t vote for a candidate just because he has the same last name as you…I mean that’s just stupid.
Hopefully Kuwaiti women will make a difference this year.
Fascinating article, Я, and thank you for posting the analysis link. If Kuwait has a future, Kuwaitis have to elect a legislating body that will work with the government. The grillings have lost their credibility, people just shrug their shoulders and say “the loonies are at it again.”
Angelo! LLOOOLLL! People would do that? Vote for a person with the same last name, just for that reason? I would LOVE to see Kuwaiti women make a difference. There are some very smart, capable women out there.
Oh yes…that’s quite common. You see, people with the same last name (and by that I mean the tribal name) always support the candidates with the same tribe, even though that specific candidate isn’t necessarily related to the voter nor his ideals are appealing to the voter as well.
Another problem we have is “vote-buying”, in which the candidate gives the voter money to vote for him/her. Usually votes can go as high 1000KD and maybe even more.
Thanks, Angelo, absolutely fascinating. It gives me a big grin, because isn’t it all done by secret ballot? How would they know? They give you KD 1000; what is their guarantee you really vote for them?
Now this my time to grin 🙂
Let me indulge you with our rotten political trends.
This is a funny ironic melancholic TRUE story, I have a colleague at work who is “Mutawa” (fresh you old post) who belongs to “Salaf a.k.a. The Islamic Heritage Rejuvenating Society (this is my best translation) and who is has the last name of one of the tribes. Now on the last elections back on 2006 I asked him to whom did you vote, thinking that he must have voted for that group’s candidates, and the shocking news is that he said the week before elections I swore an oath with all the area followers to vote for the Islamic candidates and I quote him “When I went there to vote and tried to vote for the sworn names, the pen would go directly to those candidates who belong to my tribe, I couldn’t do it, so I voted for one of the Islamic candidates and the other vote went to our tribe’s guy”. Now I told him that you’ve sworn on the Quran!! How cold you do that? The answer was simple, “I just couldn’t, it’s in my blood, it’s something beyond your comprehension”
As for your question about votes purchasing, it starts as follows (sorry but I had to put them into steps for clarity purposes:
1. The buyer’s representative (BR) scouts the area for the right voters who are willing to sell their votes for money.
2. BR approaches the voter and persuade him/her and both agree on the price of each vote (female votes are being negotiated with the woman’s brother, father or husband)
3. Once the deal is closed, the voter has to submit his/her national ID to the BR to insure that voter hasn’t closed another deal with another candidate and the documents are held with the BR until elections day (on extreme cases, a trust worthy voter won’t submit the documents and his word is taken as it is considered stronger than oak)
4. All BRs know each other as they are basically residents of the same area and they exchange a list of those voters who sold their votes an cross examine them for duplications to prevent any frauds.
5. Now the interesting tactics, on election day, a candidate may choose not to give the national ID to the voter if the he feels that he has secured his win and thus eliminating any chances of any frauds by voter to shift his votes to opponents.
6. If the candidate needs the vote, the corresponding BR calls up the voter and walks him to the election classroom signaling another same candidate’s BR who sits in that classroom to observe the integrity of the processes, now that guy knows that the voter isn’t a supporter and has been paid based on the signal thus he keeps a hawk eye on him trying to see how many ticks were placed on the voting form and does the tick fits the area on the form where candidate’s name is printed (it’s merely an approximate observation).
P.Ss:
a. The timing of the purchased votes isn’t random and are chosen specifically by the candidate’s campaign and usually the purchased voted are being herded as sheep in groups either at the early morning or an hour before the closing time.
b. The paid amount is %50 before voting and the remaining %50 when the inside BR sms the voter’s delivery BR that the vote has been verified based on his observation and thus the full payment is due.
c. The vote’s price depends on the nature of the vote itself (solo/dual for the old election ways). Solos are the highest paid and the ones which BRs aim for.
d. Buying votes isn’t to insure number of votes, the key element of the whole process is to target those votes which are considered as opponents insured votes, by keeping those national ID (voting ID for this election) the candidate uses a term called “Votes Burning” where he holds back those IDs and never giving them to voters until election boxes are sealed to eliminate opponents’ insured votes.
Apologies for the super long divided comment (wordpress wouldn’t allow me to post is a single comment), but I thought you’d like to know.
“Now this my time to grin” -> Now is this my time to grin 🙂
Oh my friend Touche’! As I read through your comments, I was thinking “this Touche’ could be teaching Political Science.” I often raged at the expensive books I had to buy, guys who had one idea but stretched it, padded it, to fill a book that students had to pay way too much for.
You’ve just outlined an entire book above on just one facet of Kuwait elections. I am totally blown away. You can comment as long as you wish on ANY topic, Touche’. Thank you for your truly excellent contribution here.
How interesting ! Kuwait is going back to the polls yet again. Wouldn’t it be super, if sometime this 21st century all who call themselves Kuwaitians could actually vote?!
Mornin’ BL. I think it would be a disaster for the vision of a modern Kuwait.
You bring home an unpalatable truth in that democracy may be fine for some of us but not for all.
🙂
I am sorry, BL. One of my degrees was political science. I remember my horror on figuring out that the nation building process in Africa worked best under communism. Having structure imposed works. Democracy is chaotic. The history of my own country shows how imperfect it is, and yet the underlying idea is so simple and shining – one person, one vote and we choose our own leaders every so often.
The problem, as my political-science heart sees it, is that most of the people who WANT to be elected are people who are more interested in being elected than in serving the people.
I come from a family of people whose culture includes serving their country. Kuwait has several of those – families who provide quiet leadership as diplomats, ministers, literally walking into battle on a daily basis, seeking solutions. The elected officials tend to create chaos, and the bureacratic workers seem to (try to) create order.
I found the last legislature circus-like. It had such hopeful beginnings. It descended quickly into posturing. What a disappointment.