BREAKING NEWS: Muslim Brotherhood Loses Heavily In Kuwaiti Elections, Salafi Faction Gains

The media is reporting that the Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait, had its representation in the Kuwaiti parliament reduced by half at a time when other Sunni Islamists performed well. According to one report:

Sunni Islamists have made a strong showing in Kuwait’s legislative election, while minority Shia gained one more seat, according to results released on Sunday. Official results from four districts and unofficial returns from the fifth showed that the Islamic Salafi Alliance and its allies won at least 10 seats in Saturday’s poll. This is almost twice their strength in the previous chamber. As in the previous election, women failed to enter parliament. In all, Sunni Islamists won 21 seats, four more than their number in the previous parliament. Parliament was dissolved by the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state in March after a standoff between the government and members of parliament. More Shia legislators The Islamic Constitutional Movement, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, however, saw its strength cut by half to three MPs in the 50-member parliament. The number of legislators from the Shia Muslim minority increased by one to five. All elected Shia MPs are Islamists, including two members of the previous parliament who took part in a controversial rally in March to mourn Imad Mughnieh, the assassinated military commander of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, sparking sectarian tensions. Analysts had predicted that sectarian divisions would play a key role in the election in the emirate, where Shias constitute one-third of the native population of just over one million. Liberals and their allies won seven seats, one less than in the previous house, while the nationalist Popular Action Bloc led by Ahmad al-Saadun, a veteran opposition figure, took four seats. Women, who were contesting the election for only the second time, failed to win any seats. Twenty-seven women were in the running. There are 22 new faces in the parliament, mostly from tribal areas.

Last week, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported that a complaint had been filed by unidentified parties which accused the Al-Islah Charity Organization, a Muslim Brotherhood charity, of financing Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) candidates. The report also indicated that the ICM was implicated in other scandals including “vote-buying’ on the part of the son of one of the ICM candidates, an official ICM spokesman. It is not known what role these events played in the Kuwaiti Brotherhood’s major electoral losses.