By B Izzak

KUWAIT: The constitutional court on Wednesday turned down several petitions challenging the legality of the general elections held on Sept 29. The petitions called on the court, whose rulings are final, to nullify the entire election process, claiming that two Amiri decrees issued ahead of the polls to regulate the elections violated the constitution.

The first decree authorized the use of civil IDs as proof of identity of voters and proof of address, while the second added new residential areas to the electoral constituencies. The new ruling means that the general elections have been confirmed and shielded against any challenges in the future.

The court also rejected 13 petitions filed by candidates challenging the results of the polls, while it decided to continue looking into 35 other petitions, setting Dec 26 and 28 for next hearings. The candidates claim there were mathematical errors in the counting of votes and demanded a recount. The court had asked for detailed tallies from the interior ministry to study them.

Meanwhile, head of the National Assembly priorities committee MP Abdullah Fahhad said the government informed the panel that it will submit a number of draft laws to achieve political and economic reforms, one of them being a bill to enforce Kuwaitization of government jobs occupied by expats. The lawmaker revealed no further details on the content of the draft law, which will affect close to 80,000 expat employees in government jobs. MPs have been pressing the government to accelerate the replacement of expat employees with Kuwaitis.

MP Essa Al-Kandari sent a series of questions to nine ministers asking about obstacles that prevent them from replacing expat employees in public jobs with Kuwaiti nationals. The ministers include those of information, finance, health, education, public works and electricity, municipality, commerce and industry, communications and housing, whose ministries employ the overwhelming majority of expats.

The lawmaker inquired in his questions about the number of expat employees in each ministry and the strategy of each ministry to implement the Kuwaitization of jobs in their ministries. He also asked about the reasons for not replacing expat employees with Kuwaitis and the nature of jobs taken by expats.

Following a meeting by the priorities committee with the government on Wednesday, MP Fahhad said the government and MPs are in agreement over three key legislations covering conflict of interests, raising salaries of retired Kuwaitis and financial aid to housewives. He said the three legislations will be sent to the Assembly for approval in December. The lawmaker said the government also informed them that its program for the next four years will be approved by the Cabinet next week and sent to the Assembly for debate.