Speaking to thousands of opposition supporters at his diwaniya in Al-Andalus following a meeting of the opposition, Barrak insisted that the jail sentence cannot be implemented now because the ruling is illegal as it does not carry a date. He called on the public prosecution to start legal procedures over the case.
Before he spoke, a large number of youth movements, trade unions, political groups and former opposition MPs held a meeting at his house to discuss forming a broad alliance of the opposition to coordinate its actions in the coming weeks.
Barrak called on representatives of such organizations to meet at his diwaniya today to officially announce the formation of the “Kuwaiti Opposition Alliance” and to announce future protests against the government.
The new opposition moves came after the criminal court on Tuesday sentenced former MPs Falah Al-Sawwagh, Khaled Al-Tahous and Bader Al-Dahoum to three years in jail each for allegedly insulting HH the Amir and undermining his status and authorities.
They were charged after they made remarks at a public rally held on Oct 10 in which the former MPs warned against amending the electoral constituency law.
Barrak himself is on trial on similar charges and he expected that the sentence against him will be harsher.
The lawmaker called on supporters to stage a procession between Firdous and Sabah Al-Nasser for the second straight night in solidarity with the three former MPs.
He said that the procession will be peaceful but warned police against resorting to the use of force and called on activists to retaliate. Barrak said the liberal National Democratic Alliance will take part in the new opposition alliance.
Turning to Prime Minister HH Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, Barrak cited him as saying that he was against the amendment of the electoral law to what is known as the single vote law and that he had told seven former MPs that he feared that supporters of former speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi and former premier Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah would oust him.
Barrak said that the solution to Kuwait’s ongoing political crisis is through forming an elected popular government which must be chosen by the elected National Assembly.
Speaking at the rally, head of the Progressive Movement Ahmad Al-Dayeen said the goals of the opposition must be very clear. “Our aim is not to abort the single vote law but to press for a full parliamentary system with a popular government and not a government comprised of sheikhs,” he said.
In Assembly news, MPs yesterday defied government objections and voted to form a special committee to investigate the awarding process of two mega contracts worth more around KD 1.5 billion to build the Sheikh Jaber Causeway and the Al-Zour North power plant. Several MPs said there were reports of political deals in the two contracts which were awarded last year.
Twenty-three MPs voted for the proposal, which was rejected by the government, against 20 members who opposed it. The five-MP panel must conclude its probe within three months.
The first contract, awarded to South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co and the local Combined Group Contracting Co, calls for building a 37.5-km causeway to link Kuwait City with Subbiya at a cost of $ 2.6 billion.
The second is for building a power and water desalination plant in Al-Zour for $ 2.5 billion to produce 1,500 megawatts of electricity and over 100 million gallons of drinking water daily. The contract was awarded to Japan’s Sumitomo Corp, France’s International Power-GDF SUEZ and Abdullah Hamad Al-Sager and Brothers.
Minister of Electricity and Water and Public Works Abdulaziz Al-Ibraheem warned the Assembly that stalling the power plant project will force the ministry to resort to power cuts.
He said that at present Kuwait has a production capacity of 13,000 MW and consumption grows between 800-900 MW every year and as last year’s consumption reached 12,000 MW, there will be no spare capacity next year and “we will be forced to impose power cuts in the summer unless new capacity is added”.
The Assembly also postponed for two weeks the debate on a draft law to write off the interest on the banking loans of Kuwaiti citizens.
