Polls open as Kuwait is set to elect its next parliament

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
6 Jun 2023 11:48

At 8:00 am local time, polls in Kuwait open as the country anticipates over 793,000 eligible voters to take part in the process and elect the next 50-year parliament.

A man casts his vote for National Assembly elections at a school in Sabahiya district, Kuwait, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (AP)

In Kuwait, polls opened on Tuesday giving over 793,000 eligible voters the opportunity to take part in the 7th general election and determine the country's next 50-seat legislature.

Polling stations across the country opened at 8:00 am (local time) and will remain open until 8:00 pm. The results, however, will be released the following day.

A total of 207 candidates are competing for a four-year term as legislators, while the number is the lowest in a general election since 1996, it included all but three of the 50 members of parliament who were elected in 2022.

Earlier in May, Kuwaiti Crown Prince Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah issued a decree to dissolve the parliament, known as the National Assembly.

Sheikh Meshal, who inked Monday's Emiri decree, was handed most of the mandates of the ruling emir, Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, in late 2021. The cabinet had submitted the decree to Sheikh Meshal at an earlier time.

In April, Sheikh Meshal said that the "will of the people required new elections that would be accompanied by some legal and political reforms to take the country to a new phase of discipline and legal reference". However, he did not give any details on the reforms.

This comes after Kuwait's Constitutional Court reinstated, in March, the previous parliament, which was elected in 2020, after nullifying last year's legislative elections as the political crisis in the Gulf state continues.