ShareBy B Izzak
KUWAIT: The government on Sunday sent to the National Assembly a draft law calling to amend the election law to establish an election high commission and allow convicted political prisoners to run in polls. The draft legislation, one of a host of laws agreed in principle between the government and MPs, is expected to be debated by the Assembly later this week. It calls to establish the election commission consisting of seven senior judges and attached to the ministry of justice. It will supervise and conduct elections, replacing the election committee of the interior ministry.
Among the key amendments to the election law is a clause allowing political prisoners convicted of offending HH the Amir to run in future parliamentary elections, erasing a ban for life under the current law. This is expected to open the way for the return of former veteran opposition MPs and others to contest the elections. In their campaigns for the June 6 elections, MPs considered this draft law as one of the most important political reform legislations.
Head of the Assembly’s interior and defense committee MP Khaled Al-Otaibi called on panel members to attend an urgent meeting on Monday to review the bill and approve it to be ready for an Assembly debate on Thursday. In a related development, MP Dawood Marafie on Sunday submitted an amendment to the election law to limit the duration of a term of any lawmaker to just two terms, or a maximum of eight years in a bid to give chance to new blood.
The draft law also calls for restricting candidacy among “original” Kuwaitis, whose ancestors have been in Kuwait before 1920. Meanwhile, the Assembly’s financial and economic affairs committee on Sunday approved a draft law raising the minimum pension for retired Kuwaitis to KD 1,000 monthly, the head of the panel said. MP Shuaib Al-Muwaizri said the committee also approved a second draft law raising the amount of a non-profit loan to pensioners from seven times of the pension to 21 times of the monthly pay.
Also, MP Adel Al-Damkh, head of a parliamentary committee probing alleged financial violations in the Eurofighter warplanes deal worth over $8 billion, said on Sunday that a former defense minister refused to attend a meeting for a second time. He said the committee is looking to take legal action as per the law if the minister does not attend the committee meetings again, adding that former and current defense ministers and top ministry officials have attended the committee meetings.
