Almost two months after the parliamentary elections, the Kuwaiti opposition is still reluctant about its next steps. The opposition, led by its Islamist and conservative former parliamentarians, has boycotted the past two elections that took place in December 2012 and July 2013. Before the July elections, Emir Sabah IV Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah scored a victory against the opposition when the Constitutional Court found his amendment of the voting law to be legal and in favor of “national security and the representation of minorities.” He has also succeeded in calming local and international criticism by issuing a pardon for political prisoners at the end of Ramadan.

The opposition is not only besieged by the emir’s tactics, but also isolated by other political players such as liberals, independent Islamists and tribesmen who decided to join the last elections using the court’s decision to legitimize their parliamentary participation. The stances of other political forces have also provoked an internal rift within the opposition, as some of their supporters found the boycott decision a dead end.

Mass mobilization was successful after the emir’s amendment of the voting law, but cannot be sustainable considering the court’s decision, the stance of other political forces and the instability they are seen to cause. Since the Arab Spring, Kuwait’s security and media apparatuses have been working to portray the political struggle as a social one to discredit any demands for change. Such efforts have been successful in mobilizing the Shiite minority and non-tribal Kuwaitis around the official leadership.

The emir’s attempt to silence criticism with a pardon for certain prisoners did not last long. On Sept. 22, 56 Kuwaitis were summoned for interrogation for reciting assemblyman Musallam al-Barrak’s controversial speech that he delivered in October 2012 at a popular rally against the emir’s amendment.