UNIVERSITY ELECTIONS: THE FUTURE OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 001012

SIPDIS

NEA/ARP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2019
TAGS: PGOV SOCI PHUM KWMN PREL KISL KU
SUBJECT: UNIVERSITY ELECTIONS: THE FUTURE OF
TRIBAL-ISLAMIST DOMINANCE IN KUWAIT?

Classified By: PolCouns Pete O'Donohue for reasons 1.4 b and d

1.(U) Summary. On October 11, the Islamist Al-Itilafiyah
(Arabic for "Coalition") party won the 2009 Kuwait University
student union election -- as it has for the past thirty-one
years straight -- trouncing the liberal and independent
parties and securing all seats on the 19-member student
governing board. Al-Italifiyah,s lop-sided victory reflects
a winner-take-all system; it is worth noting that more than
fifty percent of the vote went to other groups, including
secular parties. This Kuwait University contest also provides
a hint of how parliamentary elections might look if the GOK
merged Kuwait's five electoral districts into a single
district, a possibility "approved in principle" by a
parliamentary committee on October 19 (although the GOK is
highly unlikely to approve such a redistricting anytime
soon). End summary.


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KU's October 11 Election
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2.(U) In the October 11 winner-take-all election for Kuwait
University's 19-member student governing board, the
Itilafiyah slate won with 6,050 votes, handily defeating the
independent Al-Mostaqilla party (4,017),the liberal Al-Wasat
Al-Demoqrati party (1,680),and the Shi'a Al-Islamiya party
(fewer than 1,500 votes). A sixth party, the Salafist Islamic
Union Group, ran in a coalition with Itilafiyah for the
fourth year in a row. About 16,000 of Kuwait University's
23,000 students are female and women have been able to vote
and run since the student union's inaugural 1969 election
(thirty-six years before women got the right to vote in
Kuwait's parliamentary elections). Slightly more than half of
Kuwait University students are from conservative and
tribalist outlying areas, former Itilafiyah president Aws
Al-Shaheen told Poloff, October 11.


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Impact of the men-only tribal primaries
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3.(U) Despite the fact that roughly two-thirds of student
voters are female, male candidates continue to win the
majority of senior positions because the elections are
dominated by tribes and all-male tribal primaries. These
tribal candidates have a built-in voter base which they
mobilize through the primaries (Note: Tribal primaries are
illegal for Parliamentary elections, but not student polls.
End Note.) and by using tribal voter registration lists to
ensure promised votes are delivered, as witnessed by Poloff
during an election-day tour with Shaheen. Itilafiyah's
continued dominance of elections has helped maintain strict
gender segregation in Kuwait University's classrooms,
libraries, and cafeterias (however, Poloff noticed that men
and women mix freely in the halls and courtyard).


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Itilafiyah and the Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood
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4.(C) The extent of the current relationship between
Itilafiyah and the Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood (ICM) is
unclear. Shaheen would not comment except to say that they
shared many -- but not all -- political views, pointing out
that Itilafiyah supported women's suffrage for many years
while the ICM was still opposed to it. Lawyer and women's
rights activist Thikra Al-Rashidi, Shi'a MP Saleh Ashour, and
liberal talkshow host Yousef Al-Jassem separately told Poloff
that ICM bankrolls Itilafiyah.


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Comment
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5.(U) While ICM-affiliated Itilafiyah is the BPOC (Big Party
On Campus),having dominated the student union for thirty-one
years, in the real political world ICM won only one of fifty
seats in Kuwait's May 2009 parliamentary election -- a
stinging defeat for the best-organized party in Kuwait.
Keeping in mind that the university election is an imperfect

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mirror for the parliamentary contest, (for example, the
university election is a winner-take-all, party-slate
system),one reason Itilafiyah has done better on campus is
that there it has co-opted tribals and salafists, who join
because being part of the incumbent ruling party gives
significant advantages, including priority access to
university funding and first crack at impressionable freshmen
that derives from control of the campus orientation program.
In contrast, as ICM Secretary-General Dr. Nasser Al-Sane
recently told DCM, in the May 2009 parliamentary elections,
ICM became tarnished for running too slick and sophisticated
a campaign (to include early bulk purchasing of media space
at discounted rates) which generated a public back-lash that
led ICM-sympathetic candidates to instead run outside the
party as independent tribalists. Salafist candidates for
parliament also had no need to seek common cause with the
Ikhwan, being able to run on their own (often well-funded)
platforms.


6.(U) Itilafiyah's repeated success may have two broader
points of significance for Kuwaiti politics writ large.
First, it demonstrates the continuing resonance of Islamist
thought and support for gender segregation among many young
Kuwaitis -- a conservative trend we judge to be on the
upswing. The student union elections also suggest that if the
GOK merged Kuwait's current five electoral districts into a
single, large district (a possibility "approved in principle"
by a parliamentary committee on October 19, but unlikely to
be approved by the GOK anytime soon),this might not dilute
the tribalist and Islamist current as many liberals here
hope. On campus, identity (tribe) appears a more important
organizing principle than ideology (which for Itilafiyah is
in any case more icing than cake); that fact -- plus the
failure of the Democratic and independent secularists on
campus to join forces -- should give liberal proponents of
the one-district concept pause. End comment.

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For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit:
visit Kuwait's Classified Website at:

http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Kuwa it
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JONES