Kuwait court endorses emiri decree on voting system

Kuwait’s Constitutional Court has offered the government and opposition an important opportunity to draw a line under what has been done and have a fresh start. The fractious relationships between the factions in parliament, between parliament and the government and between the opposition and the Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah — all need to improve. The continual constitutional crisis since 2006 has distracted the government from focusing on the more important task of rebuilding Kuwait’s economy and restoring its prestige in the region.

It is unfortunate that many of the politicians in Kuwait do not recognise that governing a country is not a zero-sum game in which everyone seeks to win at the cost of disadvantaging others. The delight in beating a faction or individual in a vote may be very short-lived as the uncertainties of the next destructive round of debate come up. The purpose of being in parliament and government is not to defeat anyone with a different idea, but to find and implement those policies that lead to the greatest benefit for the people, even if that may involve compromises. This week, Kuwait’s Constitutional Court gave a complicated judgement that dissolved the present parliament, which delighted some in the opposition and disappointed others. It means fresh elections will be called in the very near future, which looks like being a typically tumultuous affair.

The reason the elections will be rowdy lies in the second section of the Constitutional Court’s judgement, which upheld the ruler’s decree that reduced the number of candidates that a voter can support from four to one. The various Islamist, nationalist and liberal factions in the opposition had united to say that this decree was unconstitutional and that it had enabled the government to manipulate election results. Several leading opposition members have argued that this decree will effectively undermine Kuwait’s parliamentary system, but now the court has disagreed with them and there is a legally defined method of voting that will apply to the next parliamentary elections. The Emir has accepted the ruling which he described as a landmark verdict. Now, the opposition has to prove its willingness to play by the constitutional rules.