Referendum Sought To Settle Constituency Issue
KUWAIT CITY, July 25
Chairman of Ittejahat Studies and Research Center (ITTEJAHAT) Khaled Abdul Rahman Al-Mudahakah has appealed to HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah the father of all and the father of the three authorities, to intervene and settle the constitutional and political debate on the five constituencies law through a referendum.
In a press statement, Al-Mudahakah stressed the referendum with respect to any law or constitutional amendment is consistent with the Constitution in letter and spirit.
At the same time he emphasized the inherent principle that people are the source of all powers and is considered the practice of direct democracy and good tool that developed people practice.
He said many constitutional experts have confirmed that the current constituency law is vulnerable to a legal challenge for several reasons and the most important one is that it does not establish justice and equality.
He pointed out the disparity between voters in different circles represents the largest constitutional gap as the voters in the First Constituency was about 17 percent of the total voters, while voters in the Second Constituency was about 11 percent.
As for the Third Constituency, the voters represent about 16 percent of the total votes, and in the Fourth Constituency the voters represent about 26 percent, while in the Fifth Constituency the voters constitute 29 percent of the total voters.
He said these figures show there is a glaring disparity between the numbers of voters in the five constituencies. This reflects the kind of gross injustice to certain constituencies in a democratic context, which requires a specific amendment or certain change to be chosen by the vast majority of the Kuwaiti people in accordance with the scientific and international measurement methods.
He explained the referendum on the issue of amending the constituencies is an essential right and fundamental reference for the people and not for the MPs of the 2009 or 2012 parliaments or even the government because the matter cannot be resolved either by issuance of a government decree or dominance of the opinion of parliamentary bloc or a political bloc.
This is because all parties on the political scene are trying to put the amendment to its advantage, irrespective whether they are vying for a single constituency or five constituencies or ten or even twenty-five, demanding for dividing the constituencies in a balanced form and demarcate its geographical boundaries so as to be consistent with its demographic facts.
In a related issue, the results of the opinion poll conducted by a youth activist calling itself 'The Youth Movement for the Reinstatement of Majority', has concluded that 82 percent of the Kuwaitis oppose any change in the current constituencies and reduction in the number of votes per eligible voter, while only 18 per cent supported the change. The poll was conducted on the social networking website Facebook.
The youth movement reportedly conducted a questionnaire to find out the opinion of the citizens about change in the current constituency system with transparency and voting on the questionnaire was made via Facebook for a period of two weeks, through this link: http://t.co/Yh53Kvj7
The Coordinator of the movement, Ahmed Bin Gayam confirmed the results came in line with the views of the majority of Diwaniyas and what was earlier announced officially by the majority bloc, which reflects the decision of the Kuwaiti people who oppose any tampering with the electoral system by changing the constituencies and the voting mechanism.
He added any change in the current constituencies and the voting mechanism in this period will put the country in a dark tunnel.
© Arab Times 2012
