Early general elections were held in

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

on 16 May 2009, the country's third in a three-year period. Kuwait had voted on six occasions between 1991 and 2009. The turnout rate was 50%.Kuwait
May 2009 The election was notable in that four women were elected for the first time since Kuwait gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1961.

Background

The Constitutional Court dissolved the

National Assembly of Kuwait The National Assembly ( ar, مجلس الأمة) is the unicameral legislature of Kuwait. The National Assembly meets in Kuwait City. Political parties are illegal in Kuwait, candidates run as independents. The National Assembly is made up of 50 ...

on 18 March 2009 over accusations of supposed abuse of democracy and threats to political stability. The government had resigned just two days before to evade questioning in parliament. Suggested solutions to this recurring problem (government resignation) include the formation of a government without any members of the royal family (a so-called "popular government"), thus making the possibility of parliamentary questioning a reality, or appointing the crown prince as PM, which would make parliamentary questioning sufficiently unlikely so that it would not be a problem any more.

Candidates

210 candidates attempted to win 50 seats. 16 were female.

Results

The results were announced on 17 May 2009. Liberals won at least 8 seats while Independent candidates won 20 seats. Four elected female MPs won. Four women were elected in the parliament.

Aseel al-Awadhi Aseel al-Awadhi (born 1969) is a former member of the National Assembly of Kuwait. She was a professor of philosophy at Kuwait University before moving into politics. Al-Awadhi first stood for a seat on the National Assembly in 2008, losing the ele ...

and

Rola Dashti In rail transportation, a rolling highway or rolling road is a form of combined transport involving the conveying of road trucks by rail, referred to as Ro-La trains. The concept is a form of piggyback transportation. The technical challeng ...

were victors in the third district. Also winning were

Massouma al-Mubarak Massouma al-Mubarak (born 1947) is Kuwait's first female government minister, sworn in on 20 June 2005. She was educated in the United States and is a professor of political science. Biography Massouma went to the US for higher education in 1971 ...

and

Salwa al-Jassar Doctor Salwa al-Jassar was one of four women elected to the National Assembly of Kuwait in the 2009 legislative election. al-Jassar is the Chief of Center for Empowering Women and ran as an independent candidate. al-Jassar obtained a Bachelor's deg ...

. When voting was first introduced in Kuwait in 1985, Kuwaiti women had the

right to vote Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

. This right was later removed. Women in Kuwait were later re-granted the

and stand in parliamentary and local elections in May 2005. Sunni Islamists lost more than 10 seats less than the 2008 elections.

References

{{Kuwaiti elections

Elections in Kuwait

Election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...