Photos: Kuwait elections, citizens, head to the polls

Kuwaiti women cast their votes during parliamentary elections in Kuwait City on September 29, 2022. In a brief June speech on behalf of the country’s ruler, Kuwait was offered a route out of years of political impasse. Elections on Thursday will go a long way to deciding whether the vision becomes a reality.

Kuwaiti women pose for a picture with their passports at a polling station during parliamentary elections in Kuwait City on September 29, 2022.

Around 800,000 voters, just over half the citizen population can choose from 305 candidates, just 22 of them women. Despite women winning the right to vote 17 years ago, there wasn’t a single female lawmaker in the last National Assembly.

People stand in line to vote for National Assembly elections in Salwa district, Kuwait. The polls are the sixth in 10 years, reflecting the repeated political crises that have gripped the only Gulf Arab state with a fully elected parliament.

The parliament was dissolved three months ago to end a protracted standoff between the government and parliamentary opposition that hampered crucial economic reforms in the country.

A woman shows her passport as she votes.

The polls will be Kuwait’s second legislative election since Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad took office in September 2020 after his half-brother Sheikh Sabah’s death.

Several opposition MPs had been on strike in protest at delays to parliamentary sessions and the failure to form a new government. Above, Kuwaitis queue up at a school turned into a polling station to vote during parliamentary elections in Kuwait City on September 29, 2022.

Kuwaitis queue up outside a polling station to vote during parliamentary elections in Kuwait City.

Kuwaiti women display their passports as they vote during parliamentary elections in Kuwait City.

Kuwait, which borders Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran and is one of the world’s biggest oil exporters, has held 18 elections since the parliamentary system was adopted in 1962.

A woman votes during parliamentary elections at a polling station in Kuwait City.