Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, who is also defense minister, formed five teams, one in each electoral constituency, consisting of the head of the police station in the concerned areas in addition to members from the Kuwait Transparency Society, Kuwait Lawyers Association and Kuwait Journalists Association.
The decision comes amid allegations of rampant vote-buying in all the constituencies and accusations that "political money" was being used in a massive way to influence the outcome of the Feb 2 elections. The move comes a day after Kuwait Transparency Society announced a reward of KD 5,000 for those who inform about any vote-buying case in all the constituencies, and urged the government to sponsor the idea.
Head of the society Salah Al-Ghazali said the money was donated by a private person and called on the government to take a similar measure in order to curb vote-buying. Hours after their formation, assistant undersecretary for public security Maj Gen Mahmoud Al-Dossari chaired a meeting of the teams which discussed ways and means to apply the law and prevent irregularities during the elections.
The minister’s decision comes a day after the interior ministry referred five cases of outlawed tribal primaries to the public prosecutor who has opened an investigation and could start summoning those accused. Those tribal primaries were held on Saturday by five tribes in the fifth constituency.
The ministry said that it has submitted substantial material evidence for the crime. But the Mutairi tribe, the largest in the fourth electoral district, went ahead and held its own primary late Tuesday, while the other big tribe in the district, the Rasheedi, postponed their primaries. Mutairis selected four candidates who will represent them in the general polls.
The primary was reportedly boycotted by the majority of the tribe especially after the main candidates and ex-MPs decided not to take part in the illegal elections.
The interior ministry reiterated in a new statement yesterday that it will continue to clamp down on tribal primaries and assured citizens that it has the means to do so.
A new youth group called "Herak" yesterday issued a statement calling on voters in the fifth constituency to ignore the outcome of the tribal primaries and vote for the best candidate in the general elections.
With two days left for the registration of candidates, the number of hopefuls who signed to contest for the 50 National Assembly seats rose to 300 yesterday after 29 new candidates registered and five dropped out.
Two new women candidates registered yesterday, raising the number of females to 19 so far. Only one member of the dissolved house – Saad Al-Khanfour – filed his nominations papers yesterday. Jamal Al-Omar and Abdullah Al-Arada, MPs in previous assemblies, also signed.
Ex-Shiite MP Youssef Al-Zalzalah announced yesterday that he will not contest the elections despite attempts by many voters to convince him. So far, nine ex-MPs have publicly said they will not run. Zalzalah was implicated in the illegal banking deposits scandal. In total, six of at least 13 ex-MPs involved in the scandal have decided not to bid for re-election.
The Kuwait Progressive Movement meanwhile called for major constitutional and political reforms in the country which it stressed were essential to develop the country’s democratic system and achieve political stability.
The leftist movement called for amending at least four articles in the constitution to make it mandatory for the new government to seek confidence from the Assembly and allow MPs to file no-confidence motion against the Cabinet any time without a grilling. It also called for amending an art
icle in the constitution to prevent ministers from becoming members of parliament like elected MPs.
