# 2009 Kuwaiti general election and the first women MPs (16 May 2009)

URL: https://allhistories.com/kuwait/timeline/2009-2009-kuwaiti-general-election-and-the-first-women-mps
Location: Kuwait City, Kuwait
Themes: main-event

Early elections on 16 May 2009 were Kuwait's third in three years and the sixth since 1991. Turnout was 50 per cent of 384,790 registered voters. Of 210 candidates for the 50 seats, 16 were women, and four won: Aseel al-Awadhi and Rola Dashti in the third district, and Massouma al-Mubarak and Salwa al-Jassar. They were the first women ever elected to the Assembly. The Assembly had been dissolved on 18 March 2009, two days after the government resigned to avoid parliamentary questioning of the prime minister. Wikipedia attributes the dissolution to the Constitutional Court, although other accounts credit the Emir. Repeated cabinet resignations led to proposals for a popular government without royal-family ministers. Independent candidates won 20 seats, and tribal candidates, Sunni, Shiite and liberal candidates took the remainder; Sunni Islamists won 10 fewer seats than in 2008. The four women made up about 8 per cent of the Assembly. Women's later representation fell, with none elected in some elections, but the 2009 result established that Kuwaiti voters would elect women. At this point in the timeline (2009), Sabah Al-Ahmad, Emir of Kuwait (2006 – 2020), was head of state under the 1962 constitution, under which the Emir also appoints the Prime Minister; Prime Minister of Kuwait Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah (2006 – 2011) led the government.

## Why it matters
Four years after the franchise was extended, women entered parliament, breaking a barrier no Kuwaiti woman had crossed and confirming the reality of the 2005 reform.

Ruler at the Time: [Sabah Al-Ahmad](https://allhistories.com/kuwait/rulers/sabah-al-ahmad)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — 2009 Kuwaiti general election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Kuwaiti_general_election)
- [Wikipedia — Women's suffrage in Kuwait](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_Kuwait)