At the polling station May 17, 2008
Posted by jewaira in Kuwait, Life, News, Women.trackback
It is the day that everyone has been waiting for. Some people can’t wait for the tension to end. Others can’t wait to see the results. And others just want life to get back to normal. I’m sure the candidates didn’t get a wink last night either.
I was dropped off at the voting centre which is really the best way as it can get pretty congested with parking. In my case, the voting centre was a local school in the area where I live. As soon as I alighted from my car, girls started to thrust fliers into my hand asking me to please vote for so and so.
Another pushed an icy bottle of water at me which I refused but which I wished I had taken later. I was so pleased with the army of young girls enlisted to work in candidates’ committees that I just had to smile and take all their fliers, despite the fact that as soon as I arrived at the school gate, the smiling policemen told me I had to deposit them all on the table. I left them gladly.
Once inside, the voting is divided according to alphabetical order of first names. I had already consulted the Ministry of Interior site and found my voter registration number which is what the women organizing the queues do. They scribble your voter registration number on a piece of paper. Then I got into the queue. This meant sitting for a while in a line in the hall outside. Then sitting for a while in a classroom. Then sitting for a while outside the classroom until my turn came.
Once my turn came, I was asked to leave my handbag on the chair outside next to the guard. Two voters are allowed into the room at a time. At a long table, stood an Egyptian man (in all probability the judge) and a Kuwaiti woman. The judge read my name out loud and my voter registration number. Behind me were two rows of women seated upright, facing the judge and the woman at the voting station. They noted down my name and number by repeating it.
I was given a sheet with the names of all the candidates. I had already seen an example of this sheet with the names of our candidates. It had come with the regular newspaper at home. I was told to go to the stand and make my selections with the pen available there.
PHOTO from here
At the stand, I checked off the names of the candidates I wanted. Of course it is not allowed to choose more than four nor to write anything on the paper that will make it void.
I folded the ballot twice and walked over to place it in the clear box.
Photo from here
I thought one of them was you ;p
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Lol no those photos are from 2006 and not of me
Jewaira
My experience this morning was very much like yours except I was in and out of the school in 10 minutes in spite of the traffic outside thank goodness. It was well organized, smooth, and actually not bad at all since I didn’t have to wait unlike last time we voted in 2006.
Since it still was not crowded at 10:30 - 11:00 AM, I then went from house to house and rounded up all the voting female members of my family after a few heated exchanges about who we were voting for and who I myself had just voted for (I did this so that there would be no excuse for them to stay home - I bullied a few of them into it too LOL ). I drove them to the school myself to make sure they cast their ballots.
We all took a little moral stand, the six of us. We voted for as many women candidates or those who supported women as we could.
Speaking of which, I had to intervene and stop my dear and quite conservative aunt from having yet another heated exchange at the entrance with the female representative of one the known Selafi candidates (also well known to have consistently voted against women’s suffrage) having the gall to ask her to vote for him.
I am so glad people are pissed off (please excuse my language), especially when they are my much loved aunties. It is a sight to see, her being pissed off
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MsBaker
You are wonderful you know?
I love your enthusiasm
With regards to your conservative aunt’s altercation with the Salafi rep, I find that an interesting trend now - not altercations but a move away from following blindly.
Jewaira
It was an interesting day for sure.. after this whole fiasco I really hope to see some progressive changes instead of hinderences to our daily lives.. I want businesses in Kuwait to be able to thrive instead of falter because of our government..
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I know Marzouq. We all want things to be better.
Jewaira
I would just like to know why we have so many Egyptian judges overseeing the casting of our votes?
Please don’t misinterpret my question; I have nothing against Egyptians or any other nationality but I wonder why after all these years we do not have enough Kuwaitis to fill judicial posts?
Can you see a Kuwaiti judge sitting in on an Egyptian election and ballot casting process?
I didn’t see any Egyptian judges today. The one who took my ballot was Kuwaiti.
I am so pleased that the women are voting for women. I hope women win.