“Members of the al Ajami tribe have defended a campaign costing millions of Kuwaiti dinars that propelled Nasser al Ajami to victory in the Million’s Poet competition. Nasser was crowned the Million’s Poet champion on April 7 despite being beaten on the judges’ scorecards by the third-placed poet Hissa Hilal in each round of the popular TV contest. The Kuwaiti was catapulted into first place because 40 per cent of the final score was determined by the public. He received twice as many SMS text votes as the Saudi woman. The weighted voting system has led some to question if a large and supportive tribal network had more bearing on the result than the poet’s creativity and oratory skill. At a gathering of more than 4,000 tribesmen on the outskirts of Kuwait City to celebrate their family member’s success, the consensus was that voting based on tribal allegiance was a tactic employed by many of the contestants. They just did it better. “It’s like the election of a president: it’s not enough for individuals to vote,” said Mishal bin Hethlain, a sheikh of the al Ajami tribe’s leading family, which organised and partly funded the campaign. “He got to the final without support, but to win this competition you need the support of your family.” Mr bin Hethlain said that three weeks before the final he co-ordinated a fundraiser to persuade wealthy members of the tribe to donate. Without specifying the amount of money raised, he said “we’re talking millions” of Kuwaiti dinars………..”
Next time they should just advertize the tribe during Super Bowl: much cheaper. Of course they’d have to compete with the GoDaddy.com chicks…….
Cheers
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