By B Izzak

KUWAIT: The National Assembly’s legal and legislative committee on Tuesday held a conference to discuss ways to reform the election system in the country, including proposals to introduce for the first time party-like lists in the elections. Head of the committee MP Mohannad Al-Sayer said the panel will receive all proposals and after thoroughly discussing them, it will finalize a draft law to be ready for assembly debate on Dec 19.

Participants included Assembly Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun, Deputy Speaker Mohammad Al-Mutair, a large number of current and former MPs, civil societies, activists and others. A large number of participants supported the idea of holding elections on the basis of groups or party-like lists rather than individual candidates in a bid to transform the political scene in the country to be collective instead of individuals.

Rapporteur of the committee MP Abdulkarim Al-Kandari said that amending the election system can be better done when there is political stability and the country currently enjoys a good degree of such stability. MP Jenan Bushehri said she supports the idea of the party-like lists provided public interests should come first, adding that Kuwait needs an election system that strengthens collective work like parliaments in advanced countries.

MP Mubarak Al-Tasha said the new law should achieve justice among voters so that electoral districts should have the same number of voters. At present, there are huge differences in the number of voters in various constituencies. He also said that the committee will be looking into the two vote or four-vote systems to replace the current single vote.

MP Hamad Al-Matar called for also considering amending the constitution along with changing the election system, while former MP Rashed Al-Farhan said the Assembly membership should be increased to 100 members through amending the constitution. Deputy Speaker Mutair said all are in favor of change, but there are different opinions to that end, adding that the existing single vote law has divided the country on sectarian and tribal lines. MP Hasan Jowhar said there is a historical opportunity for amending the election system backed by a large number of reformist MPs and supported by the people.

Speaker Saadoun said the amendment should not be delayed, adding that he submitted a draft law for introducing the party-like system. The draft law proposes to divide Kuwait into five electoral districts. Registering for running in elections must be done through lists, with each list consisting of between one and 10 candidates. Each list will be designated a number by the election commission. Voters can vote for any list, whether contesting in the same constituency or in other constituencies. The voter will have only one vote.