The board of a co-operative society decides what goes onto its shelves and what comes off, and not every citizen can stand for it. The right belongs to every citizen — but only at the society of the area they live in, and under four conditions.
The four conditions
- Being a Kuwaiti national.
- Being thirty years of age or over.
- Having been a member of the society for at least one full calendar year at the close of the financial year.
- Holding a qualification of at least a two-year diploma after secondary school.
The membership and qualification conditions are waived for the first financial year of a newly registered society, under article twenty-four of the model statute for co-operative societies.
And a fifth, negative condition: no conviction for a felony or for an offence against honour or trust, unless the candidate has been rehabilitated.
The papers
- Three personal photographs.
- The civil ID and a copy.
- The original academic certificate and a copy, attested inside Kuwait if issued abroad.
- Permission from the employer for serving military personnel.
- A to-whom-it-may-concern certificate from the Public Institution for Social Security for retired military personnel.
When and where
Applications are made at the society itself, when nominations are announced open in the official press. There is no other window. Fees are paid to the relevant section at the society, and no fixed fee is set for the service.
The practical conclusion
Anyone thinking of standing in future should watch one condition that cannot be fixed at the last moment: a full year of membership. The rest is paperwork prepared in days; that one takes a year.
Photo: a ballot being cast. By W.carter, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: Kuwait’s e-government portal, the co-operative society board candidacy service page, Ministry of Social Affairs.
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