By B Izzak

KUWAIT: Finance Ministry Undersecretary Saleh Al-Saraawi and five assistant undersecretaries resigned yesterday in a letter to the prime minister in protest against a decision by Finance Minister Barrak Al-Sheetan to rotate their posts. The top bureaucrats claimed in their letter that the minister made the move without their knowledge, adding that the decision came after they refused to implement decisions by the minister that “violate the law”.

But the finance ministry said in a statement yesterday that the minister has accepted the resignation of the six top officials of the ministry. The Cabinet has not yet made any comment on the issue. But MP Riyadh Al-Adasani called on the prime minister to accept the resignation of Sheetan and stop a major crisis in the finance ministry. Adasani has grilled the finance minister twice and the minister survived two no-confidence motions as a result, but following the second grilling, Sheetan placed his resignation at the disposal of the prime minister.

Meanwhile, 55 candidates including four women yesterday registered to run for seats in the National Assembly election on the third day of candidate registration, raising the number of hopefuls so far to 193 including 18 women. Thirteen candidates filed from the first constituency, 10 from the second, 16 from the third, 10 hopefuls from the fourth and six from the fifth constituency.

The new candidates include five sitting MPs and six former lawmakers from the past assemblies. The MPs who registered in the hope of retaining their seats are Adel Al-Damkhi, Bader Al-Mulla, Awdah Al-Awdah, Ali Al-Deqbasi and former information minister and MP Mohammad Al-Jabri. The six former MPs include Ahmad Al-Shahoumi, Abdullah Al-Turaiji, Jamal Al-Omar, Abdullah Mayouf, Ammar Al-Ajmi and Hussein Mazyed.