Kuwait

Articles about voting issues in the State of Kuwait.

Veteran politician says negative phenomena impacted Kuwait election outcome | gulfnews

Feb 072012

A veteran Kuwaiti politician has blamed the emergence of sectarianism as an important factor to be elected to parliament. ”The emergence of chaos and of negative phenomena, including the sectarian dimension, has enabled people to reach the parliament,” Ahmad Al Khatib, the deputy chairman of the 1962 constituent assembly that drafted the constitution, said. “ The emergence of chaos and of negative phenomena, including the sectarian dimension, has enabled people to reach the parliament ” Read More »

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Kuwait Comments Off Topics: Ahmad Al Khatib, Constituent Assembly

Islamist-led opposition wins majority | Al Jazeera

Feb 042012

Kuwait’s Islamist-led opposition has won a landslide majority in snap polls, securing 34 seats in the 50-member parliament, officials results showed. The snap polls were held after the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state dissolved parliament following youth-led protests in December over alleged corruption and bitter disputes between opposition MPs and the government. Sunni Islamists took 23 seats compared with just nine in the dissolved parliament, while liberals were the big losers, winning only two places against five previously. No women were elected, with the four female MPs of the previous parliament all losing their seats. Read More »

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Kuwait Comments Off Topics: Islamist parties, women voters

Islamists favourites as Kuwaitis vote | The Daily Star

Feb 032012
Kuwait

Kuwaitis were casting ballots Thursday in a snap vote to elect the fourth parliament in less than six years, with unofficial polls showing the Islamist-led opposition in the lead. The vote in the wealthy Gulf state, which follows a campaign marred by violence, seeks to end political disputes that have hurt the country for years. Female voters, dressed in clothes ranging from black traditional abayas to casual Western-style jeans, lined up in short queues in voting stations set up for women, as lines of men formed at separate polling booths. Women voters make up 54 percent of the electorate and 23 women are among 286 candidates running for the 50-seat legislative body. Read More »

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Kuwait Comments Off Topics: Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, women voters

Kuwait parliament election test for growing array of opposition groups | The Washington Post

Feb 022012
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Kuwait is heading into elections in much the same combative style that gripped the last parliament: Opposition groups pressing for even a bigger voice against the nation’s Western-allied rulers and domestic tensions running so high that one group torched the campaign tent of a rival. Thursday’s voting for the 50-seat assembly — one of the most outspoken elected bodies in the Gulf — will test how much Kuwait’s ruling family and its backers can hold back a growing array of challengers, including hard-line Islamists and young liberals inspired by the Arab Spring. An expected strong showing by opposition groups also could bring major distractions for Kuwait’s leadership as the nation regains its role as the main base for American ground troops in the Gulf following the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq last year. Read More »

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Kuwait Comments Off Topics: parliamentary election, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah

Warning against election malpractices | Kuwait Times

Jan 272012
Kuwait

His Highness Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, the Prime Minister, asserted here yesterday that “the government will not turn a blind eye on the phenomenon of vote buying during elections.” HH the Prime Minister thanked, after his tour of the Media Center for National Assembly elections 2012, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah for involving the Kuwait Transparency Society in monitoring the elections for the first time, stressing that “the government cannot accept any sort of disturbance of the electoral process”. Read More »

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Kuwait Comments Off Topics: Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, malpractice, Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, vote buying

Elections offer slim chance for reform | Reuters

Jan 192012

Kuwait is preparing to vote for its fourth parliament in six years in an election unlikely to resolve a relentless tug-of-war in the Gulf Arab nation that has paralysed politics and held up reform. It is hard to predict who will “win” the vote, particularly since formal political parties are banned, but one thing analysts agree on is that the new parliament is likely to be just as divided and obstreperous, if not more so, than the last. ”It doesn’t really matter who wins and who loses,” said political commentator Ghanem al-Najjar. “What’s important is how we move on from there.” Read More »

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Kuwait Comments Off Topics: Ghanem al-Najjar

Suspicious deal between candidates under probe | Kuwait Times

Jan 102012
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The Cabinet yesterday decided to refer to the public prosecution a suspicious multimillion-dinar deal involving the sale of stocks of an unlisted company between two candidates running in the National Assembly polls. After hearing a report on the deal by Minister of Commerce and Industry Amani Buresli, the Cabinet decided to refer the suspected money laundering deal for a legal probe, an official statement said. The Cabinet also decided to hear another detailed report on the issue next week.

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Kuwait Comments Off Topics: Amani Buresli, bribery, election media, parliamentary election

Government moves to set up election commission in Kuwait | Kuwait Times

Jan 032012

In a surprising move, the Cabinet yesterday reviewed two key election reform draft laws presented by Prime Minister HH Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, one of them calling for the establishment of an independent election commission. The second bill calls for setting up of an independent national committee for supervising election campaigns in a bid to ensure equal and fair opportunities to all candidates contesting the polls.

The two draft laws were then referred to the Cabinet’s legal committee to study its details before they come back to the Cabinet for final approval, according to a statement issued following the Cabinet’s weekly meeting. The two draft laws will not be issued immediately as they will be referred to the next National Assembly which will be elected on Feb 2. The establishment of an independent election commission has been among the main demands by the opposition to reform the election process which has been under the supervision of the interior ministry since 1962 when Kuwait began adopting the parliamentary system. Read More »

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Kuwait Comments Off Topics: election reform, Independent Election Commission, Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah

Interior Minister forms teams to fight vote-buying | Kuwait Times

Dec 302011

The interior minister yesterday made an unprecedented decision by forming special teams with the participation of members of non-governmental organizations to combat vote-buying ahead of the forthcoming general elections. Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, who is also defense minister, formed five teams, one in each electoral constituency, consisting of the head of the police station in the concerned areas in addition to members from the Kuwait Transparency Society, Kuwait Lawyers Association and Kuwait Journalists Association.

The decision comes amid allegations of rampant vote-buying in all the constituencies and accusations that “political money” was being used in a massive way to influence the outcome of the Feb 2 elections. The move comes a day after Kuwait Transparency Society announced a reward of KD 5,000 for those who inform about any vote-buying case in all the constituencies, and urged the government to sponsor the idea. Head of the society Salah Al-Ghazali said the money was donated by a private person and called on the government to take a similar measure in order to curb vote-buying. Hours after their formation, assistant undersecretary for public security Maj Gen Mahmoud Al-Dossari chaired a meeting of the teams which discussed ways and means to apply the law and prevent irregularities during the elections. Read More »

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Kuwait Comments Off Topics: Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, transparency, vote buying

Emir dissolves parliament, calls for election | Reuters

Dec 072011

Kuwait’s ruler dissolved parliament on Tuesday and called for an election, state media said. The government was forced to resign last month in one of the deepest political crises in the oil-exporting state and the emir said this crisis was threatening the country’s interests.

Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah gave no date for the election but under the constitution it must be held within 60 days of parliament’s dissolution. The emir said in a decree read out on state television that the decision to dissolve parliament came after it became difficult to achieve progress. ”This required going back to the nation to choose its representatives in order to overcome present difficulties,” the decree said. Read More »

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Kuwait Comments Off Topics: Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah
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