By B Izzak
KUWAIT: The National Assembly Interior and Defense committee on Monday began discussing a government-sponsored draft law calling to establish the High Election Commission for the first time in Kuwait to supervise parliamentary elections. The heads of the Interior panel and the legal and legislative committee MPs Khaled Al-Oteibi and Muhannad Al-Sayer, respectively, announced after the meeting that they will ask the National Assembly on Tuesday to form a joint committee to discuss the draft law.
This will allow them to complete the bill and send it to the National Assembly for a possible debate on Thursday. MP Jenan Bushehri said after attending the meeting that she raised a number of issues during the discussion including demanding to allow Kuwaitis living abroad to vote in parliamentary polls. She said that she also called for including clauses to control spending during the elections and to specify sources of financing, in addition to regulating opinion polls ahead of the elections.
Bushehri said she objected to a clause in the government draft law requiring women to abide by Islamic Sharia regulations during voting, adding that she demanded to know the specifics about those regulations. The government draft law stipulates that the Election Commission will consist of seven senior judges, adding that the commission will be under the Ministry of Justice.
The Progressive Movement meanwhile, said the draft law has ignored the problems of the one-vote system and that under the bill, the commission will not be independent because it will be attached to the Ministry of Justice. In another development, five MPs on Monday submitted a draft law calling to include Kuwaiti women who are 50 years and unmarried in the housing welfare system so they are entitled to a house and a housing loan like men.