KUWAIT - Kuwait’s new cabinet approved on Tuesday a draft law that would reduce the number of parliamentary constituencies in the Gulf Arab state, the official news agency KUNA said. The move meets popular demands for electoral reform, the core of a dispute between the government and parliament, which led to the dissolution of the house in May. Opposition MPs say the reform would guard against vote buying.“The Council of Ministers approved a draft law to divide Kuwait into five electoral constituencies,” KUNA said. The cabinet sent the draft to the emir for approval before sending it to parliament for a vote, it said. The move comes a day before the new parliament, dominated by reformist MPs, convenes to elect a speaker.
The government had proposed a bill that sought to reduce the number of constituencies to 10 from 25. The measure failed to impress reformists who insisted there should be five constituencies to make elections easier to monitor. Some MPs in the previous house had even submitted an unprecedented request to grill Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al Mohammad Al Sabah over the disputed draft law.
| Next thing you know they'll want to elect the prime minister from amongst the MPs. Recapitulating English history one step at a time. |