While some Shias believe that disputes with the emirate’s Sunni ruling majority are being exaggerated, fears of a sectarian divide have prompted impassioned appeals for national unity during the election campaign.
Both Shias — who account for one-third of the native population of about one million — and Sunnis running in the poll have warned of the dangers of a possible fallout from sectarian violence in Iraq and the US-Iran standoff over Teheran’s nuclear programme.
‘I think that sectarian polarisation in this election is much higher than during the 2006 polls,’ Shia candidate Abdulwahed Khalfan told AFP.
In March the authorities detained several Shia activists for several days after a rally was held to mourn Imad Mughnieh, a commander of Lebanon’s Shia militant Hezbollah group, who was killed in February by a car bomb in Syria.
The activists were questioned over their alleged roles in forming a pro-Iranian Hezbollah branch in Kuwait and plotting to overthrow the government.
The crackdown angered Shias who staged protests to demand the release of their activists, who denied the accusations.
Local commentators have said that the crisis over Mughnieh was one reason which prompted the emir to dissolve parliament in March and call an early election.
Mughnieh, whose death was widely blamed on Israel, was accused of hijacking a Kuwaiti passenger plane in 1988 that led to the killing of two Kuwaiti civilians.
The hijacking followed a series of deadly bombings allegedly carried out by Shia militants in the mid-1980s at the height of the war between Shia Iran and Iraq, which had the support of Kuwait.
Some Shia activists believe rising sectarian sentiment, coupled with a new division of constituencies, will benefit Shia candidates.
‘I think Shias will have around seven members in the next parliament,’ up from four in the dissolved 50-seat house, Khalfan said.
Under a new election system, the number of electoral districts has been cut from 25 to five, increasing the number of voters in each constituency five-fold and changing the geographic distribution of voters.
Khalfan expected Shia candidates to benefit from the new system.
In the past, two legislators were elected for each electoral district, and Shias were a majority in only two constituencies.
Now each constituency will elect 10 deputies. Shias constitute half the voters in one constituency and sizeable numbers in the remaining constituencies.