Opposition lawmaker Adasani suspends grilling, meets Amir

MP Muwaizri proposes amendment to election law

KUWAIT: Opposition MP Riyadh Al-Adasani met HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah along with the National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem yesterday and announced the suspension of a grilling he was planning to file against the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Hind Al-Sabeeh. Adasani said after the meeting that the government has decided to take the measures required which was supposed to have been filed yesterday against Minister Al-Sabeeh.

The lawmaker however said he was still awaiting for the implementation of the government’s promises regarding the issues in the suspended grilling. Adasani thanked the Amir and spoke about the external developments taking place around Kuwait. Speaker Al-Ghanem said that the grilling is a constitutional tool and not an aim as such - adding that there are many ways to achieve reforms before resorting to filing a grilling.

He said an understanding was achieved between Adasani and Minister Al-Sabeeh over the issues in the grilling in a way to serve public interests. He said that the aim of the grilling will be achieved in the near future. AlGhanem said that the Assembly is scheduled to hold two special meetings on June 24 and 25 to be followed by two regular meetings on June 26 and 27.

Meanwhile, opposition MP Shuaib Al-Muwaizri yesterday submitted a draft law stipulating sweeping amendments to the election law by dividing Kuwait into two major constituencies each electing 25 MPs. Muwaizri said that the existing election law does not achieve social justice with regards to the number of voters in each of the five constituencies. He said that the Fifth Constituency has 155,000 voters and the Fourth has 140,000 - which together have more votes than the remaining three constituencies: the Third (96,000), the First (86,000) while the Second has the least number with 62,000.

Still each of them has an equal number of lawmakers in the Assembly. If approved, a remote possibility, the law will dramatically boost the number of tribal legislators in the National Assembly. They currently occupy about half of the 50 seats. The present election law divides Kuwait into five electoral constituencies, each electing 10 lawmakers. Each voter is allowed to cast only one vote meaning a voter can elect only one candidate.

The law, amended in 2012, has triggered wide scale criticism and street protests. In his draft law, Shuwaibi proposes to divide the country into two constituencies: the first comprising the governorates of the capital, Jahra and Farwaniya while the second comprises the governorates of Ahmadi, Mubarak Al-Kabeer and Hawally.