Pro-reform MPs want to avert vote-buying in next elections

Thirty-three policy-makers, including 16 cabinet ministers, voted on Tuesday in favour of the motion submitted by conservative and tribal policy-makers the previous day.

Their vote caused a walkout by reformist members of parliament in scenes unprecedented in the conservative Gulf kingdom.

Only parliament speaker Jassem al-Khorafi voted against the motion.

About 30 reformist policy-makers gathered outside the parliament, where hundreds of members of the elite special forces, armed with batons, were deployed to stop the public from entering.

Vote buying

Kuwaiti reformists have staged protests

Parliament broke up in chaos on Monday when the reformers walked out as voting began on the motion to refer the government-backed bill, reducing the number of constituencies to 10 from 25, to the constitutional court.

The reformist MPs want to go further and reduce the number of constituencies to five in an attempt to fight vote-buying and other irregularities they say marred Kuwait's last general election in 2003.

Walkout

They were angered by the government's change of heart and support for the conservative-backed motion, staging their walkout amid cheers from the gallery in tumultuous scenes never seen before in Kuwait.

Reformists' supporters rallied outside the parliament on Tuesday chanting slogans demanding that electoral districts should be cut to five.

The boycotting MPs met after the vote to decide on their next step, with several saying one of their main options was to seek to intensely question the prime minister, Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

Recommend this article...

Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto: