KUWAIT: A number of lawmakers said on Monday that they believe that resolving the injustice in the distribution of voters among the five electoral constituencies should be accorded priority in the process to reform the election system. The National Assembly’s legal and legislative committee on Sunday approved major reforms to the election system by accepting for the first time a party-like lists formula and allowing voters to cast two votes, one for a list and the second for another list or an individual candidate.
But the committee decided to delay redrawing the five constituencies, where there are major discrepancies in the number of voters. The first constituency has 100,000 voters, the second 90,000 voters and the third has 138,000 voters. The fourth constituency has 209,000 voters and the fifth has the largest number with 257,000 voters. The last two are mainly tribal areas. Despite the massive differences in the number of voters, all constituencies elect 10 MPs each.
MP Fayez Al-Mutairi, from the fourth constituency, stressed that amending the constituencies should be given highest priority to achieve fair representation for the Kuwaiti people. Writing on X, Mutairi said that there are huge discrepancies in the number of voters between the constituencies, and it is unacceptable that a certain constituency has twice as many voters as another, but both elect the same number of MPs. He said amending the constituencies is essential for making the election reforms fair and just.
MP Mohammad Al-Ajmi, from the fifth district, with the largest number of voters, said reforms to the election system should be based on a fair distribution of voters in the five electoral districts. He said that no election reforms will be accepted before achieving a just distribution of voters among the constituencies.
MP Khaled Al-Otaibi, also from the fifth constituency, submitted a proposal calling to divide Kuwait into two electoral districts with the same number of lawmakers. The first district will consist of the current first, second and fourth constituencies and the second will comprise the third and fifth constituencies. He said the number of voters in the two new proposed districts is almost equal.
Meanwhile, MP Osama Al-Zaid said he and a number of MPs have signed a motion calling to ask the Assembly’s human rights committee to investigate claims of torture against a Kuwaiti citizen who was arrested by the army intelligence last week. MP Marzouq Al-Ghanem raised the issue last week by saying the man was illegally arrested, detained and physically abused by the army intelligence and called for a probe.
Defense Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah immediately ordered the formation of an investigation committee in the ministry to probe the claims. But MP Zaid said lawmakers want to ensure a neutral probe by the Assembly committee to protect the integrity of the citizen. The motion is expected to be reviewed by the Assembly on Tuesday.