Kuwaiti elections on Thursday produced a fragmented parliament (national assembly) dominated by opposition (the nearest definition since there are no political parties in the oil rich small Gulf nation), as 34 of the 50 members are known to oppose the government.
Like the rest of the region extending from the Atlas Mountains to the Khyber Pass, Islamism is on the rise. Islamists and their sympathisers like Salafis form some 23 seats, in addition the Shia, won seven seats (down from nine in the 2009 parliament), three of whom belong to Gamat Islamiat (radical political Isalmists).
However the Islamists are not a hegemonised bloc. The Muslim Brothers won four seats (and a couple of of sympthisers from the tribal seats who are about 20 although overlap with other categorisation like Shia, Islamists etc), gaining three seats as they had only one seat in the 13th parliament (2009).
This is still short of the peak of their appeal which was the 2006 parliament when the MB had six seats. The pro government liberals and independent, mainly open minded merchants and professionals lost two thirds of their seats down to only two in the new parliament while the popular bloc lead by veteran Ahmed al-Sadoun, a dozen times MP and several times speaker of the house is poised to be the speaker of the 14th parliament. Many kuwaitis believe that Mr al-Sadoun as speaker might help calm things down and reduce antagonism and endless opposition by majority MPs creating a deadlock and paralysing political life in Kuwait.
Hardly any decision taken by the government (chosen by a prime minister appointed by the Emir) or a policy for growth and investment was implemented since the MPs would oppose it or drag the minister in charge before a select committee or the full house as whole to answer provocative questions, mainly accusations.
The late 1990s Emir's decree to give women the vote, was a case in point. Since the decree was announced, in response to popular demand, while parliament was suspended, the new parliament reversed the decision just to spite the government despite women groups welcoming the Emir's move and protesting against the MPs action.
In this week's election the four female MPs lost the seats they won back in 2009.
The last parliament was dissolved due to an impasse between the MPs and the government.
Last November the prime minister resigned giving the reason of inability to implement policy due to continuous opposition from MPs, which lead the emir to dissolve the 13th parliament and call elections.
The disappearing of women from the 14th parliament in Kuwait has little to do with Islamiastion ( Muslim brothers are only two thirds of their strength in 2006 11th parliament) or with the tribal patriarchal nature of society, but more to do with losing support of majority of Kuwaiti women who were disappointed by their sisters performance in the 13th parliament. They criticised the four female MPs for doing little to push for acts improving the lot of women. Instead of acting as one bloc extracting some feminist gains in exchange for lending support to various trends, they split in their tactical support between pro and anti-government trends.
The other observation was the change of the structure of the tribal voting patterns as new younger politicians emerged outside many of the traditional tribes (who normally use American parties like rallies to select the tribe's candidates to fill seats in the geographical heartland in one or more of Kuwait's five constituencies where the 10 candidates who score the highest votes get elected to Parliament) .
Several younger politicians held their own rallies outside their own tribal consideration and several won seats while the tribe's choice didn't quite make it.
One has to correct a misconception that appeared in the media, especially in western media suggesting similarities between Islamists' gain in Kuwait and that of the Muslim brothers MB gains in post revolution Egypt. The rise of Islamists in Kuwait is different to Islamists sweeping to power in election in Egypt and earlier in Tunisia.
In the two post revolution cases, Islamists were the most organised forces after decades of suppression by military dictatorship. A common error most media organs was to see the Kuwaiti election as another phases of the (laughable phrase which I don't use ) " Arab spring" and the rise of political Islam.
Kuwait ( like rest of the Gulf) is not ruled by a military dictatorship coming to power by a military coup, thus the legitimacy of ruling families are not challenged, as it is the case in North Africa and Middle East republics where governments came to power by illegitimate means.
While Egyptians and Tunisians started the revolution to fight corruption and seek transparent fair elections ( in Libya too since colonel Gaddafi abolished elections), the Kuwaitis held fair and transparent 14 elections over 50 years always scrutinised by international monitors.
In addition Islamists ( including MB) in the oil rich Gulf nations are different of those in the dictatorial republics as their chance of bribing electorate with better welfare and social services non-existent in the Gulf.
They have no chance or resource to compete with the state welfare system. In fact the state in Kuwait provides the citizens with every need from birth all the to funeral cost. There are no political parties in Kuwait and no group is capable of producing a programme to form a government.
In Kuwait one finds the only example in the world of representation without taxation, hence the Islamists in Kuwaiti parliament don't seek to ( or could) change the way of life or attempt to rule the land as it is the case in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.
Thus in every parliament at least half the MPs become opposition to the government of the day since they know they never will be in a position of implementing policy for which they become accountable to the electorate. Thus their demands are often like those of trade unions. Therefore the worst the Islamists can do is to become more of an irritating pain, and a force of delaying overdue government programmes of growth and reform than a posing real threat to the stability of Kuwait.