The charter, released after a meeting between youth activists and a number of opposition MPs, expressed the total rejection for the continuation of the 2009 national assembly, which was dissolved last year but revived by a constitutional court ruling last month. It called for immediately dissolving the house and scheduling fresh polls.
The charter strongly rejected any change to the electoral law or voting system through issuing “emergency decrees”, through the reinstated 2009 assembly or by involving the judiciary into the political dispute. It insisted that any amendment must be passed in the next assembly.
The charter called on Kuwaitis to boycott the forthcoming parliamentary elections in case the electoral system was changed and called for considering such an action as a coup against the constitution and a violation of the will of the Kuwaiti people.
Islamist MP Waleed Al-Tabtabai said the charter will be circulated for signatures by the former members of the scrapped 2012 assembly, youth activists and the public, and urged civil society organizations to join the campaign.
The new move comes amid reports that the government was contemplating either amending the electoral constituencies by an “emergency decree” or referring the electoral law to the constitutional court to rule on whether or not it breaches the constitution.
Opposition MPs insist that any change to the electoral law will be done in such a way as to enable the government to influence the outcome of any parliamentary election, which would effectively prevent the opposition from controlling a majority in the house as it did in the scrapped 2012 house.
In a rare attack on Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, MP Saadoun accused the prime minister and cabinet of searching for a justification to “break the will of the people”. Saadoun charged that all such attempts by the government aim at perpetuating the 2009 assembly, which was brought down by the people in December last year.
Opposition MP Abdulrahman Al-Anjari, meanwhile, charged that the prime minister and assembly speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi were conducting “the biggest and most silly political scenario in Kuwait”.
Further, Khorafi sent out invitations yesterday to MPs of the 2009 national assembly and members of the cabinet to attend a session on July 31, the first meeting since the house was revived by court on June 20.
The invitation said the session would include allowing the ministers to take the oath to become MPs, besides approving past minutes.
There is a small chance that there will be enough of a quorum to hold the session, though many MPs said they would boycott the gathering. Khorafi said if the session fails, he would schedule another meeting on August 7 and then refer the issue to the Amir.
Also, MP Mohammad Al-Mutairi officially submitted his resignation to the speaker to become the first 2009 MP to step down.
