He's a firestarter...a political firestarter

Yesterday Gulf News reported that a feud between two candidates in the upcoming Kuwaiti parliamentary elections reached new heights. Al Juwaihal, candidate for the Third Constituency, used a campaign speech to verbally attack Abaid Al Wasmi, candidate for the Fourth Constituency. This may have been a good opportunity for Al Wasmi to respond with a words of attack against Al Juwaihal, which in turn would have hailed the start of a good-old-fashioned political mud slinging contest. Instead, Al Wasmi's counter attack involved the somewhat heavy-handed support of his Al Mutair tribe, multiple boxes of matches and the burning tents of Al Wasmi. As well as setting fire to the Third Constituency candidate, Al Juwaihal has requested that the Kuwaiti authorities formally exclude Al Wasmi from the political race.

Whilst Al Wasmi's public verbal attack may have been slightly aggresive, I thought mud-slinging speeches were standard ingredients in any political campaign. On the other hand, if I lived in the Fourth Constituency, I would be far more concerned about my local MP's temper. If Al Juwaihal is setting fire to opponents' tents in the campaign stage, how will he cope with the day to day battles that come with being in political office? I will watch with interest to see which, if any, of these two feuding neighbours are successful in their election attempts. With elections being held tomorrow, we don't have long to wait.