Official tabulations showed the winners included firebrand liberals, hardy independents with liberal leanings, noisy veteran opposition MPs with impeccable political track records, a balanced Islamist block, pro-government MPs, a mixed bag of Bedouin tribesmen some of whom support the government and some very rich merchants.

Some 113,00 voters, all male and amounting to about 14 per cent of the indigenous population, were eligible yesterday to elect the country's third 50-seat National Assembly since the 1991 Gulf War. The newspaper Al-Rai al-Aam described the new crop of legislators as the strongest parliament to be elected in Kuwait within the last decade. The new batch of parliamentarians, for all their diversity, appear to be the group thatwill also help to change the face of politics in the Gulf region by supporting a controversial Emiri decree granting Kuwaiti women political rights at the next poll in 2003.