By B Izzak

KUWAIT: Former National Assembly speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem was among 30 new candidates who filed their nomination papers on Saturday to contest the upcoming June 6 polls, raising the total number of hopefuls to 212 with just one day remaining for registration. There were 350 candidates at the end of the ninth day of registration for the annulled Sept 2022 general elections.

There were five ex-MPs among the candidates, raising their number to 56. Four members of the court-annulled 2022 Assembly also registered, raising their number in the race to 44. The former speaker said he is running in the elections because he has a project that can help Kuwait emerge from the current bottleneck. Ghanem also called on the election organizing committee to take a series of measures to ensure the elections are fair and transparent, including transparent voting and counting of votes.

Ghanem and a number of former lawmakers had claimed that some irregularities marred the September elections, which were later scrapped by the constitutional court.

Asked if he plans to contest the speaker’s post, Ghanem said he is ready to serve the Kuwaiti people, whether as a speaker or a member of the Assembly. He is likely to compete with veteran opposition leader and former speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun for the post. Saadoun was speaker of the court-dissolved 2022 Assembly. Ghanem did not contest the previous polls.

Candidate Hamed Al-Bathali, a former member of the 2022 Assembly, called on Kuwaiti voters to actively participate in the voting. He said Kuwait needs political reforms and improving the standard of living of the people. Mohammad Al-Mutair, deputy speaker of the 2022 Assembly, said only honest lawmakers can forge ahead with a reformist program and not those who collaborated with previous governments. Former MP Abdullah Al-Aradah said Kuwait needs stability through the application of the law and respecting the constitution.