Kuwait Elections 2020

An overview of the GCC countries’ parliaments

Although the GCC countries remain hereditary monarchies, it is interesting to look at how their parliaments operate, examining some key similarities and differences that exist among them, as well as highlighting important milestone.

	Oman and Bahrain are the only two bicameral GCC parliaments, the rest is unicameral.	Kuwait’s National Assembly seats more elected than appointed members and has more powers than its GCC counterparts		50% of UAE’s FNC members are elected by the electoral college. FNC is the only GCC parliament that cannot propose new laws.	Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the only two countries with all-appointed parliaments.
	National Assembly	National Assembly	Council of Oman	Federal Nation Council	Consultative Council	Consultative Council
Elected Members	40	50	85	20	0	0
Appointed Members	40	15	86	20	35	150

Political Parties

Political parties are general prohibited across the GCC and candidates thus run in the elections as independents. However, in Bahrain and Kuwait they can form political societies and run under their banner.

Woman in the parliament

First and Last

Oman the first country to allow women run and vote in the parliament elections.

Qatar was the last GCC country to appoint women in its parliament in 2017.

1st female Speaker

The UAE elected the first women Speaker of the House in the GCC in 2015, the second one was elected in Bahrain in 2018.

1st Women Quota

Saudi Arabia was the first to introduce women quota in the parliament. It was set at min. 20% and KSA thus has the largest number of women members (30) among the GCC parliaments.

Proportion

The UAE was the 2nd to introduce quota for women and the first to set it at 50%, becoming the first equal gender representation and simultaneously also the largest proportion of women

Kuwait currently has the lowest proportion of women in the parliament.