Tear gas and stun grenades were used to disperse a protest in Kuwait against changes to the electoral law. The call for the Karamat Watan (A Nation’s Dignity) march, which took place on Sunday, was made on Twitter, and attracted about 150,000 out of the country’s population of 3 million. Media outlets considered this number to be the biggest in the small Gulf emirate’s history.
The protest came in reaction to the Amir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah decree to change the electoral law, making a citizen vote for one candidate instead of four, as it used to be in the elections of Kuwaiti parliament. The protest was not only an objection for making such a change but more importantly to protest the change of a law without the parliament or the people having their say in it. Since last June, Kuwaiti parliament has been frozen by the Amir and then dissolved by the constitutional court for ‘wrong procedures’ in dissolving the parliament before it.
The opposition has been protesting since but was never able to gather such a huge crowd; even the liberal “Tahalof” and Pan-Arabist “Manbar” took part in Sunday’s demonstration despite their disagreement with the Islamist-Conservative opposition.
In a unique step, this demonstration was organized through Twitter. The account @KarametWatan [ar] (which translates to A Nation’s Dignity) was started to call for the protest. It suggested an orange avatar (in reference to the 2006 youth movement that changed the electoral law from 25 districts to 5), and organized the meeting points with the following map:
The protest route shared by @KarametWatan on Twitter
As usual, Kuwaitis used Twitter to post pictures and videos of the protest. Here are some of the pictures:
On Twitter, @NforNaser says the police asked him to drop this sign or else they would beat him up. The sign reads: Believe in the people; disbelieve in the system.
Picture of the crowds marching posted by @nourah_ibrahim
A protester with a head injury (photo posted by @BuNaWaFF)
Another injured protester with his feet cuffed (posted by @3asalaswad)
Protesters running away from tear gas bombs (posted by @JanarlySpeaking)
More photoes and videos here:
Kuwait: The Country’s Biggest Protest? · Global Voices.