November evenings are balmy on Kuwait City's waterfront, and there is a festive atmosphere in Irada Square as crowds gather for another protest rally. Women swathed in black mix with others in jeans while men in dishdashas and red-checked ghutra headdresses sip tea on Persian rugs spread on the spiky grass.
Speakers are hammering home the call to boycott this Saturday's elections because the emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al Sabah, has decreed a change to voting rules that will weaken the opposition. Stewards display spent teargas canisters that were fired to break up an unlicensed protest last month.
Unlike elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa , Kuwaitis are not seeking to overthrow their regime. Irada (the Arabic name means "will") is tamer than Cairo's Tahrir Square. Violence is very rare.
Yet there is no mistaking the depth of divisions in this small but fabulously wealthy country – and the anxiety about how they will play out. Its ultraconservative Saudi and Emirati neighbours are watching nervously.
"The emir's decree was the straw that broke the camel's back," said Sultan al-Majrubi, a young activist who was injured when special forces broke up October's big demonstration. "The Sabah family need to change from the inside. They are not thinking about the future and their credit with the people is running out."
• Kuwait is still the most democratic state in the Gulf. Its "springtime" dates back to 2006, long before the overthrow of the autocrats who ruled Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. » | Ian Black in Kuwait City | Sunday, November 25, 2012
