Elections on July 27 after Dashti withdraws request – Human rights body slams mistreatment of expats The Cabinet yesterday approved a decree setting parliamentary elections on July 27, two days after the earlier day set last week after a request to the constitutional court to explain parts of its June 16 ruling was surprisingly withdrawn. The court was scheduled to issue its explanation yesterday, but during the jury deliberations, member of the dissolved Assembly Abdulhameed Dashti, who filed the request, surprisingly withdrew the request and the court accepted the withdrawal and decided not issue any explanation. In his request, Dashti said that parts of the June 16 ruling which scrapped the National Assembly and confirmed the amendment to the electoral law, were unclear and needed more elaboration. He specifically asked if the ruling required reinstating the 2009 Assembly which was dissolved on Oct 7. After setting the election date on July 25 last Thursday, the government decided to put the election decree on hold until the court made its explanation as a precautionary measure in order to make sure that legal procedures on the election were in line with the constitution and to prevent any possible challenges that may force dissolving the Assembly for the third time in less than a year. The two-day delay was required because of the election law which requires that the election decree must be issued at least one month prior to the election date. Since the election decree is expected to be issued today, the election cannot be held on July 25 because of the one-month period. The election decree is expected to be published in the official gazette Kuwait Al-Youm today, which means that registration of candidates will start the following day. The candidate registration process will continue for 10 days and withdrawal of nomination papers will continue until 10 days before the election date. The election will be held on the basis of one-man-one-vote, down from a maximum of four in the previous elections. Meanwhile, the Kuwait Association for Human Rights yesterday issued a statement in which it criticized what it called mistreatment of expatriates in Kuwait, including deportation of those who commit grave traffic offences. The association criticized the reported appointment of a retired senior police officer as the chief of the newly established Manpower Public Authority which will be given the power to supervise the recruitment of expatriates from abroad and supervise their affairs in the country. The statement said that it is illogical to appoint a police officer who has been dealing with criminals as the chairman of the manpower authority, which may give the impression as if it is going to deal with criminals.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 06:45:02 +0000
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