2022 Kuwaiti Municipal election

21 May 2022
10 of the 16 seats in the Municipal Council
Turnout	22.32%

Municipal elections were held in Kuwait on 21 May 2022 to elect 10 of the 16 members of the Municipal Council. Thirty-eight candidates including one woman ran in eight constituencies. The elections were held in 443 committees distributed over 76 schools.^[1] The number of registered voters were 438,283.

Candidates

Any Kuwaiti-born citizen who is 30 years of age on election day, who is able to read and write in Arabic and has not been convicted of a felony or a crime involving breach of honor or trust is eligible to run for office. Registration of candidates took place between 14 and 23 April 2022.^[2]

Forty candidates including one women, Zainab Al-Hasawi, registered in the ten constituencies. Two got immediate victory after running unopposed, an event occurring for the first in Kuwait’s electoral history.^[3]

Results

No elections were held in the seventh and tenth constituencies due to having one applicant registering in the election, giving them automatic victory per local laws.^[4]

Turnout in the 2022 election was 22.32%. Only three out of the ten members of 2018 Municipal Council, Hassan Kamal, Abdulaziz Al-Mehri and Fuhaid Al-Muwaizri, kept their seats. Resulting in a rate of change of 70%.^[5] No women won in this election.

Aftermath

On May 31, the Cabinet of Kuwait approved the six appointed members which included four women. They are Muneera Al-Amir, Shareefa Al-Shalfan, Alyaa Al-Farsi, Farah Al-Ruomi, Ismael Behbehani and Abdulateef Al-Deei.^[6] The first session took place on 8 June 2022. During the opening session, Abdulaziz Al-Mehri was elected as speaker of Municipal Council unopposed. Khaled Al-Mutairi was also elected unopposed as Deputy speaker.^[7]

References