Kuwait Cabinet sets snap election for Dec 1

KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti cabinet on Saturday amended a controversial electoral law and set a December 1 date for snap polls, sparking angry opposition calls for demonstrations.

“The cabinet approved the amendment of article 2 of the electoral law to change the voting system... and approved a decree to invite voters to elect a new national assembly on December 1,” it said in a statement. The snap polls are the second this year and the fifth since mid-2006 as parliament has repeatedly been dissolved because of political disputes. “I call on every Kuwaiti to tear the December 1 paper from the calendar and throw it in the dustbin. It is a black day in Kuwait's political history,” opposition leader and former MP Mussallam al-Barrak wrote on Twitter.

The opposition has called for a massive demonstration on Sunday in protest at the decision to change the electoral constituency law, charging it is a bid by the government to influence the results and elect a rubber-stamp assembly.

The electoral constituency law, issued in 2006 after opposition-led protests, divides the country into five electoral districts, each electing 10 MPs to the 50-member parliament.

Under that legislation, each eligible voter was allowed to elect a maximum of four candidates.

AFP