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 1 December 2012 after early elections in February 2012 were declared invalid. In the elections,

Shi'as Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...

won 17 out of 50 seats in the National Assembly, an increase from the seven won in the February elections. Sunni Islamists were reduced to a minority. Three women also entered the Parliament compared to men-only from the February election, but their number decreased compared to the 2009 election. Turnout was officially reported to be 43%, the lowest in the Kuwaiti electoral history.

Background

Six weeks before the elections, the electoral system was changed to

single non-transferable vote Single non-transferable vote or SNTV is an electoral system used to elect multiple winners. It is a generalization of first-past-the-post, applied to multi-member districts with each voter casting just one vote. Unlike FPTP, which is a single-winn ...

, with voters restricted to voting for only one candidate, having previously been allowed to vote for four under

multiple non-transferable vote The multiple non-transferable vote (MNTV) is a group of voting system, in which voters elect several representatives at once, with each voter having more than one vote. MNTV uses multi-member electoral districts or only one district, which conta ...

. The changes resulted in mass protests and an opposition boycott of the elections. Shafeeq Ghabra, professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences at

Kuwait University Kuwait University ( ar, جامعة الكويت, abbreviated as Kuniv) is a public university located in Kuwait City, Kuwait. History Kuwait University (KU), (in Arabic: جامعة الكويت), was established in October 1966 under Act N. 29 ...

said that, "it's clear that the boycott was very successful." The opposition rejected a unilateral amendment of the electoral law that reduced the number of votes per person from four to one.

Results

Aftermath

On 5 December, despite calls for political reforms,

Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah ( ar, جابر مبارك الحمد الصباح, Jābir Mubārak al-Ḥamad aṣ-Ṣabāḥ, born 4 January 1942) is a Kuwaiti royal and former politician who served as the prime minister of Kuwait fro ...

was reappointed Prime Minister. In the opening session of the Assembly, Ali al-Rashid was elected Speaker. In June 2013, the Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the National Assembly and the holding of fresh elections.Kuwait elections: Constitutional Court orders fresh poll
BBC News, 16 June 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2012 12 Kuwaiti general election 2012 elections in Asia 2012 in Kuwait Elections in Kuwait Annulled elections December 2012 events in Asia