KUWAIT: The National Assembly's interior and defence committee yesterday approved the controversial decree which amended the voting mechanism in the electoral constituency law and caused the opposition to boycott the parliamentary elections, head of the committee MP Askar Al-Enezi said. The decree issued ahead of the Dec 1 election reduced the number of candidates a voter can pick up from a maximum of four to only one.
Under the law, all Amiri decrees issued in the absence of the Assembly must be submitted in the first session when the Assembly meets and it has the right to approve or reject the decrees. The opposition boycotted the election due to the amendment, claiming that it allows the government to manipulate the outcome of the election. Even after the election, the opposition has continued to stage protests calling for scrapping the new Assembly and repealing the amendment decree.
The approved decree now goes to the Assembly which will vote on it to approve or reject it. If the decree is rejected, which is a very remote possibility, it will mean nullifying the results of the election and dissolving the Assembly. Dozens of challenges against the decree were submitted to the constitutional court alleging that the amendment breaches the constitution. The court will start looking into the challenges on Jan 13 but is expected to take several months to rule on the decree.
MP Enezi however said the committee postponed until another meeting a decision on another decree issued before the election to establish the independent National Election Commission for more study. He said the committee also approved a third decree stipulating that the maximum number of people who can be naturalized in 2013 is 2,000 people. But he said the committee recommended that the Assembly later amend the law to double the number.
Separately, the appeals court yesterday upheld the verdicts issued by the lower court in January against 20 policemen and civilians accused of torturing a Kuwaiti citizen to death at a police station two years ago. The court upheld a life term against two officers accused of conducting the torture at Ahmadi police station in Jan 2010 against Mohammad Al-Maimouni Al-Mutairi. The court also upheld jail terms of 16 years against three other policemen, a 15 years sentence against a fourth and a two-year term against a fifth. The court ordered the dismissal of all of them from service.
Two other policemen were fined KD 200 while 11 others were acquitted. The case will now go to the court of cassation. The case caused a political uproar when it was revealed and forced former interior minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Khaled Al-Sabah to resign. A large number of the deceased relatives were present in the courtroom when a policeman was entrusted to read the verdict. The relatives were dismayed by the ruling as they were expecting some of the defendants to be sentenced to death. A parliamentary investigation panel at the time found that Mutairi had apparently been subjected to severe torture for six days, including three days in a remote desert location.
Meanwhile, the criminal court yesterday set Jan 7 to issue its ruling on an opposition tweeter on charges of insulting HH the Amir in some of his tweets. It also set the same date to issue its verdict against Osama Al-Munawer, a member of the scrapped 2012 Assembly, on charges of undermining the authority of the Amir in a speech at a public gathering.
© Kuwait Times 2012
