By B Izzak

KUWAIT: The government on Sunday asked the National Assembly’s interior and defense committee to delay its debate on draft laws calling to establish an independent high election commission to organize and oversee parliamentary polls. Member of the committee MP Khaled Al-Tammar said the government said it was preparing a comprehensive legislation on the issue, and the Cabinet is scheduled to study the draft legislation on Monday. It will be sent to the Assembly soon, so the issue can be completed by the panel and sent to the Assembly for full debate during July.

A number of draft laws have been submitted by MPs calling to establish the election commission in order to make the polls more transparent and controlled by an independent body. MP Hamad Al-Alyan said on Sunday he and a group of lawmakers have submitted a series of reform bills including amendments to the constitutional court and amendments to the election law to allow group lists in polls, in addition to establishing the election commission. Alyan said lawmakers also submitted a draft law introducing comprehensive changes to the Assembly’s internal charter and another bill to regulate the judiciary.

He said the group is working to introduce other draft laws on reforming education and the economy and improving welfare for citizens. The Assembly’s health and labor committee approved a proposal to add Kuwaiti housewives to a network of health insurance for retired Kuwaitis called Afya, MP Majed Al-Mutairi said. Mutairi said the panel also proposed to reduce the age of beneficiary women from 50 to 45 years. Meanwhile, the appeals court on Sunday upheld a 10-year jail term on a senior member of the ruling family and his Kuwaiti partner over money laundering charges as part of the worldwide scandal of the so-called Malaysian Fund.

The court also upheld a seven-year sentence on a Kuwaiti lawyer involved in the case involving the laundering of $1 billion embezzled from 1Malaysian Development Bhd, the Southeast Asian country’s sovereign wealth fund. The court did not review a 10-year jail sentence on two foreign accomplices, a French businessman of Syrian descent and a Malaysian businessman and financier who is the main defendant in the scandal, because the initial sentences were issued in absentia and the convicts did not appeal.

The appeals court also upheld ordering the convicts to collectively return $1 billion and pay a fine of KD 145 million. The $1 billion was sent by the Malaysian convict using a Kuwaiti bank account of the senior royal, and then transferred to Swiss bank accounts. During the term of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, the country’s sovereign wealth fund was systematically embezzled of a total of $4.5 billion, with the convicted Malaysian businessman playing an instrumental role in the fraud.

The money was sent to several countries including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, China and others. The appeals court’s ruling is not final as it can be appealed before the court of cassation, the highest in the country. The case attracted huge attention in Kuwait, especially in the National Assembly where MPs demanded an investigation into the major money laundering case.