Kuwait: Arrests for vote buying

The Ministry of Interior will refer two former MPs and parliamentary candidates to the Public Prosecution for alleged vote-buying, Arab Times reports.

The parliamentary elections are on May 17.

Securitymen have arrested more than 10 men and women, including members of a female candidate’s committee in Hawalli and three women in the Fifth Constituency on similar charges. The police raided the committee’s office and during interrogation some panel members admitted that they had purchased votes in the Third Constituency. The police found a box full of citizenship certificates and another box containing KD100,000 ready for distribution to the certificate owners.

Sources said votes were purchased at KD500 each and one candidate intended to buy votes to win tribal elections in the Fifth Constituency. The raid was part of efforts to combat vote-buying in line with the Elections Law and Interior Minister Shaikh Jaber Al Khaled Al Sabah issued directives to expedite interrogation and refer the accused to the Public Prosecution. The Public Prosecution also ordered the immediate arrest of members of the Hawajer and Awazem tribes in the First Constituency for participation in the recent primaries.

The elections monitoring committee at the Kuwait Democracy Development Society said one candidate from the Fourth Constituency hired the services of citizens for unknown reasons and expressed doubts on the candidate’s move which, it said, might be intended to buy votes.

The sources said Al Otaibi tribe held primaries on Monday and nominated two candidates from the First Constituency. Al Rashidi tribe also held primaries.Naeema Al Hae from the Third Constituency filed papers and said women voters in previous elections were disappointed as male parliamentarians ignore their issues.

Accusing some male candidates of spreading rumours that women would not vote for female candidates, Al Hae said it was one way to discourage women from contesting the elections.

Objecting to the proposed quota system, Al Hae said the system would limit the number of parliamentary seats for women. “If female voters choose four candidates each, then there will be 20 female MPs in the next parliament.”

Al Hae is the only female candidate to register since Thursday. Twenty candidates registered on Monday, bringing the number of candidates to 313, including 19 women.

Only one candidate has withdrawn since the start of registration on April 14. Former MP and First Constituency candidate Sayed Hussein Al Qallaf confirmed he would form alliance with others but refused to provide details. Asked about the large number of alliances among candidates from the First Constituency, Al Qallaf said the five constituency system had given birth to alliances. “Ethnical electoral lists are being enforced on us but I hope they represent the community and not a certain group.”

The Court of First Instance ordered the ministry to allow Fourth Constituency candidate Faisal Al Tuwayeh to contest the election. But it dismissed Al Tuwayeh’s petition to declare Elections Law No. 35/1962 unconstitutional. Tuwayeh argued that he was Kuwaiti and had never been convicted for dishonesty or breach of trust. But when he filed papers as candidate from the Fourth Constituency, he said, he discovered Al Nahda area where he lived was not included in the election. Tuwayeh sought help of people to consider his candidacy but his efforts went in vain and he filed the case.

Bahrain Tribune