I had been really excited about today's Kuwaiti elections. These elections really are unusual in today's Arab world, in that the outcome is actually not pre-ordained. Women are allowed to vote and to run for the first time, which is very exciting - and both liberals and Islamists are claiming that their participation will strengthen their position. The elections followed the dissolution of the Parliament in the face of determined resistance to a plan to change the number of electoral districts, resistance which extended to a campaign of contentious public politics shaped by blogs and new media politics (the "Orange Youth"). Corruption has been a big issue in the public debates. Finally, interest in the elections in the Arab media has been high. With democracy and public freedoms on a steady retreat around the region, this election is an exciting exception.
But alas, it's hard to keep any kind of focus on Kuwait today. Oh, the elections are going ahead. They are very interesting, turnout appears to be high, and I'm looking forward to analyzing the results (the Kuwaiti paper al-Watan is promising detailed results here). But in terms of the Arab public agenda, the elections have been swamped by the Israeli re-invasion of Gaza and arrest of a number of Hamas government officials (more on this later today, I hope). I've just been watching the 10:00 AM al-Jazeera newscast. Gaza and Kuwait were indeed the top two stories. But Gaza took up the first 16 minutes. Only then did the newscast turned to Kuwait - for two minutes, before turning to Somalia.
UPDATE: Behind the News, the major prime time talk show on al-Jazeera, focused on the Palestinian crisis rather than on Kuwait. The guests included Mustafa Barghouti (the peace activist and Presidential candidate, not Marwan, the imprisoned popular Fatah leader) and an Israeli whose name I missed, from Tel Aviv University. The al-Jazeera 3:00 EST news brief which followed Behind the News also focused on Gaza, along with the Syrian reaction, and the Hamdan (Guantanamo) decision - but then it goes to the horrifying Haykal show, which I just can't leave on my screen. Al-Arabiya's 3:00 EST news is focusing more on the Kuwaiti election, though, and also reports Hamdan... but then goes to Giselle Khoury's interview show, which is almost as bad as Haykal (but at least she has two Kuwaiti women on). No more TV for me today, thanks.
UPDATE 2: Nathan Brown gets a jump on commentary on the elections. Me, I'm waiting for some results!
.... Kuwaiti TV says that turnout was over 80%. Results are trickling in - here's a link where you can find a live feed for Kuwaiti TV to watch as they come in!
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