This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KUWAIT 002416 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARPI 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/30/2015 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KWMN EIND KU WOMEN POLITICAL RIGHTS
SUBJECT: JUNE 2 MUNICIPAL COUNCIL ELECTIONS TO MARK 
REEMERGENCE OF INFLUENTIAL BODY; HIGHLIGHT PAST CORRUPTION 
 
REF: A. KUWAIT 1836 
     ¶B. KUWAIT 1808 
     ¶C. KUWAIT 1633 
     ¶D. KUWAIT 1401 
     ¶E. 04 KUWAIT 4219 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Richard LeBaron for reason 1.4 (d). 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Kuwaiti Municipal Council (Al Majlis Al 
Baladi) is an influential governing body that retains great 
authority on important issues such as construction projects, 
economic development, and commercial planning.  Despite its 
"municipal" name, the Council's jurisdiction is national. 
Elections for the 16-member Council are scheduled for June 2, 
during which an all-male electorate will select ten members 
for the first Council since 1999.  The Council has been in a 
caretaker status since 2003 when the 1999 Council concluded 
its four year term of service.  The Cabinet decided to delay 
elections, originally scheduled for 2003, because of its 
desire to first pass legislation on women's political rights 
and new laws restricting the authority of the Municipal 
Council.  While the previous Council accomplished many 
objectives including approving the Boubyan Island and Failaka 
development projects and initiating the Shuwaikh Free-Trade 
Zone, there were frequent accusations of administrative 
corruption and inefficiency, including accusations by a 
former Council member.  Municipal candidate campaign 
platforms are primarily focused on combating corruption, 
community beautification, reducing pollution, and solving 
traffic problems.  Although Kuwaiti women recently gained 
their full political rights, they cannot participate in this 
election because the election date was set before the May 16 
suffrage decision and there is no provision to register new 
voters; they will be able to participate in the 2009 
municipal elections.  The GOK appoints six Council members, 
some of whom are expected to be women. End Summary. 
 
The June 2 Election and Candidate Campaigns 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) There are 54 candidates running for ten open seats in 
the June 2 Municipal Council elections.  The Council is 
composed of 16 members, ten of whom are elected, with the 
remaining six appointed by the GOK.  Elections are held every 
four years and every seat is open at election time.  Women 
are not permitted to participate in this election; however, 
it is possible that at least one -- some speculate as many as 
three -- will be appointed by the GOK.  Because of the 
technical nature of much of the Council's work, past 
appointed members often had professional backgrounds in 
engineering or other mechanical fields. (Note: Women gained 
the right to vote and run for office in national-level 
political elections in May and will be eligible to 
participate in the 2009 Municipal Council elections.  Women 
will not participate in this year's elections because the 
municipal election date was set before women gained their 
rights and there was no provision to register new voters 
before the June 2 balloting. End Note.) 
 
¶3. (U) The Council members represent ten constituencies -- 
one candidate elected to the Council from each -- and all 
Kuwaitis registered to vote for members of the National 
Assembly (approximately 137,000 men) are automatically 
eligible to vote in Municipal Council elections.  The ten 
municipal constituencies comprise much larger population 
centers than the 25 districts used for Parliamentary 
elections and because there are only ten, candidates need 
more votes and a wider level of public support to be elected 
to the Municipal Council than to Parliament. (Comment: If 
total voter turnout is 73 percent -- equivalent to the 
turnout in the 2003 National Assembly elections -- and the 
election race in each district is very close, a municipal 
candidate would have to receive an average minimum of 2,200 
votes to win a seat on the Municipal Council.  The average 
number of votes garnered by a victorious candidate in the 
2003 National Assembly elections was 1,800.  Six MPs were 
elected to Parliament in 2003 on less than 1,000 votes each 
and only 16 out of the 50 current MPs received more than 
2,000 votes.  End Comment.) 
 
¶4. (U) The campaigns, in their final week, are in full swing 
as banners and bumper stickers can be seen throughout Kuwait 
and roadside signs are plastered along almost every mile of 
road -- some with the face of the same smiling candidate have 
been placed every 20 feet for miles.  Ahmed Al-Shimmari, a 
candidate whose constituency comprises much of downtown 
Kuwait City, publicly announced that his campaign centers on 
the beautification of the capital city.  A candidate running 
in the rural western municipal district that includes Jahra, 
Sulaibikhat, Doha, and Amghara, Askar Al-Enezi, complained 
that his district lacked adequate public health, shopping, 
and recreational facilities and vowed to combat pollution. 
Other popular campaign issues are fighting administrative 
corruption, solving traffic problems, and combating 
"inefficiency." 
 
¶5. (U) Although they are not eligible to vote, several women 
weighed in publicly with their concerns and the issues they 
would like to see addressed by the new Municipal Council. 
Among those issues highlighted were reducing administrative 
violations and corruption, protecting the environment, 
reducing traffic congestion, and addressing the housing 
shortage. 
 
Council Corruption Blamed For Lack Of Progress In Kuwait 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶6. (C) Because of its role in approving construction and 
development contracts, the Municipal Council is popularly 
believed to be corrupt.  Three-time Municipal Council member 
and current candidate Khalifa Al-Khorafi, cousin of 
Parliament Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi, told PolOff there is a 
great deal of corruption in the Municipal Council.  He said 
there is no excuse for Kuwait not to be as modern and 
developed as Dubai because it has both the necessary legal 
framework and the money to develop.  He said the corruption, 
which he characterized as playing a larger role in the 
Council's work "than most even hear about," is easy to see. 
When you see an area that appears poorly maintained, he 
explained, it is clear corruption exists there because the 
Municipality has the resources to change it. 
 
¶7. (C) Al-Khorafi referred to "legal corruption" as one of 
the biggest problems.  He described this as when the Council 
openly approves contracts or accepts bids for projects to 
favor individuals or their companies, at the expense of 
productivity and efficiency.  He offered as an example an 
occasion where three companies were competing for a contract 
and the contract was awarded by the Council to all three.  He 
said this is not only inefficient but also "bad for Kuwait." 
He further complained that when the questionable proposal 
reached the Council of Ministers for final approval, 
accompanied by a written objection from him, it was approved 
with the help of Minister of State for Cabinet and 
Parliamentary Affairs Mohammed Dhaifallah Sharar, who oversaw 
the Council and whom he characterized as very corrupt. 
(Note: Minister Sharar was grilled in the National Assembly 
in December 2004 on charges of corruption.  Most of the 
relevant and damaging charges against him involved contracts 
and salaries with the Municipality (ref D). End Note.) 
Khalifa pointed out that Prime Minister Shaykh Sabah Al-Ahmad 
Al-Sabah reportedly mentioned corruption in the Municipal 
Council saying "convoys of camels couldn't carry the mistakes 
and corrupt profits coming from the Municipal Council." 
Because of the necessary role of the Council of Ministers in 
approving all municipality projects, Khalifa commented, "it 
was PM Shaykh Sabah who loaded those camels."  Al-Khorafi, 
who must garner more votes to be elected to the Council than 
to Parliament, said that although he would have a good chance 
of being elected to the National Assembly, he prefers to 
continue pursuing a seat on the Council because he believes 
he can wield more power there to help Kuwaitis than anywhere 
else in the Government. 
 
An Overview of the Council 
-------------------------- 
 
¶8. (U) Established in 1932, the Municipal Council is a 
governing body that addresses societal and commercial issues 
that are below the visibility of the National Assembly, but 
require more oversight and national supervision than the 
local Cooperative Societies provide.  (Note: Kuwait's 
ubiquitous Cooperative Societies (co-ops), which are located 
in each neighborhood throughout Kuwait, are chains of 
businesses that offer community services and shopping options 
such as grocery stores, fast food restaurants, and sports 
stores.  Co-ops are governed by an elected board and 
shareholders, who are typically neighborhood residents, and 
their input shapes what services and jobs are available in a 
given community. End Note.) 
 
¶9. (U) The Municipality assists in both public and private 
sector activities.  It manages issues in the public's 
interest to include public planning, surveying and zoning, 
environmental affairs, construction and development projects. 
 It also handles matters of public safety, street 
construction, public landscaping, maintenance of historical 
buildings, issuance of commercial licenses and 
advertisements, and supervision of graveyards and burials. 
All projects and contracts approved by the Municipal Council 
must also be approved by the Council of Ministers before 
becoming legally binding. 
 
¶10. (U) The 16 members sit as an entire Council every other 
Monday.  Although the Municipal Council meets to conduct 
official business in downtown Kuwait City, each of the six 
governorates has a municipality center and each town within 
the municipality has a local office.  The 1999 Council, the 
last elected, concluded its service in 2003, after which a 
caretaker Municipal Affairs Committee was formed to serve 
until new elections, scheduled for June 2, were held.  An 
Amiri decree issued April 11, 2005 appointed Justice Minister 
Ahmed Baqer as Minister of State for Municipal Affairs 
replacing Sharar. 
 
¶11. (SBU) A new law governing the activities of the Kuwait 
Municipalities was issued in March.  The long wait for this 
bill's passage contributed to the two-year delay in new 
elections.  The law is more restrictive of the Municipal 
Council's authority and provides more oversight of the 
Council and its chairman.  The Municipal Council previously 
had the authority to pass commercial and construction 
proposals that had been rejected by the Council of Ministers 
with a 2/3 majority vote.  One candidate and long-time 
employee of the Municipality lamented the loss of this 
authority, calling it the "beating heart" of the Council. 
The new law also reduced the authority of the Municipal 
Council chairman.  The Council chairman, who in the past was 
dual-hatted as chairman and as the head of the Municipality, 
has lost this latter portfolio which oversees personnel and 
employment issues throughout the Municipality.  Baqer, as the 
the Minister of State for Municipal Affairs, is now the 
designated head of the Municipality.  Baqer has also been 
given the authority to reject single Municipal Council 
proposals without holding up all other submissions; in the 
past all proposals had to be approved or rejected en masse by 
the Council of Ministers. 
 
The 1999 Council 
---------------- 
 
¶12. (U) The most recent municipal election took place in June 
¶1999.  There were 58 candidates for the ten available seats 
in the ten different constituencies.  Tribal candidates won 
six of the seats and the press claimed that vote-buying took 
place and may have influenced some of the election outcomes. 
After the dissolution of the Council at the end of its term 
of service in 2003, new elections were postponed for two 
years by the Council of Ministers due to delays in efforts to 
secure women's political rights and passing the legislation 
reforming municipality activities. 
 
¶13. (U) Beyond addressing issues of importance to the local 
districts, the 1999 Council approved the requirements for the 
Failaka Island development project, approved the Boubyan 
Island development project, developed the western 
agricultural area, approved the Shuwaikh Free-Trade Zone 
structure, and allocated a second headquarters for the Kuwait 
Stock Exchange. 
 
********************************************* 
Visit Embassy Kuwait's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ 
 
You can also access this site through the 
State Department's Classified SIPRNET website 
********************************************* 
LEBARON