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Two former MPs, Jamal Al-Omar and Mohammad Al-Huwailah, were among 47 new candidates who registered to run in the July 27 election, raising the total number of hopefuls to 339 with just two days more for registrations. Mishari Mohammad Al-Anjari however became the first candidate to withdraw from the race yesterday. Pulling out of the race is open until 10 days before the actual election day. Registration closes tomorrow.

he Cabinet yesterday put the election process on hold “as a precautionary measure” while the country waits for the constitutional court to explain its verdict issued last week amid expectation the election date could change. The constitutional court, whose rulings are final, is scheduled to provide legal interpretations for its verdict which ordered the National Assembly dissolved and confirmed the controversial single-vote amendment.

The Gulf Cooperation Council yesterday unanimously declared Lebanon-based Hezbollah a terrorist organization and said it would take measures against the group’s interest in the Gulf countries.
“All GCC countries are convinced that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization,” Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Ghanim bin Fadl Al-Buainain told reporters following a meeting of GCC foreign ministers in Jeddah.

KUWAIT: MP Khalil Al-Saleh yesterday submitted a draft law calling to amend the nationality law in a way to allow granting citizenship to non-Muslims, saying taking the religion factor in nationality affairs amounts to a form of discrimination. The Shiite lawmaker said that the Kuwaiti nationality law, first introduced in 1959, did not stipulate religious conditions in granting citizenship to foreigners. However, an amendment introduced in 1982 required that foreigners who may be granted Kuwaiti citizenship should be Muslim by birth or have embraced Islam for at least five years.

Kuwait’s ruler opened the country’s new parliament on Sunday in the face of months of street protests and political unrest, warning critics he would not accept lawless behavior and chaos on the streets.

Security forces had set up barriers that stopped several hundred opposition activists - a small crowd by Kuwaiti standards - approaching the building overnight to continue their demonstrations against what they see as a rubber-stamp assembly.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah yesterday accepted the resignation of the Cabinet submitted by Prime Minsiter Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah in a measure required under the constitution.

The Amir asked the premier and other ministers to continue as a care-taker government until the new Cabinet is formed. Under Kuwaiti law, the Cabinet must resign after the announcement of the parliamentary election results and a new Cabinet must be formed before the National Assembly holds its first session which must be within two weeks of the results.

A team of international observers, which was invited by the Kuwait Transparency Society (KTS) to Kuwait to observe the Dec 1 elections, finished its report and made certain recommendations which were made public yesterday by the Ministry of Information.

The Undersecretary of Ministry of Information, Sheikh Salman Al-Homoud Al- Sabah, expressed his satisfaction at the conduct of elections that reflected the functioning democracy in Kuwait.

KUWAIT: The Interior Ministry yesterday issued a permit to the organizers of the opposition demonstration on Friday, one day before the Dec 1 election. The opposition has decided to stage the demonstration in protest against holding the election on the basis of the amended electoral law. Interior Ministry spokesman Col Adel Al-Hashash told a press conference yesterday that the ministry issued the permit after it found that the application submitted by the organizers met the conditions set by the ministry, mainly that the demonstration must be peaceful.