Kuwait protest rally dispersed

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwaiti riot police used stun grenades and smoke bombs against thousands of demonstrators who blocked a major road south of the capital yesterday as the emir met four leading opposition figures.
After elite special forces and police completely sealed off the original protest site in Kuwait City, organizers told supporters via Twitter to gather instead at Mishref, some 20 km south of the capital.
Although most roads leading to the new location were quickly closed off by police, thousands of people still managed to get through and immediately started marching.
They briefly cut off the sixth ring road, the main motorway in the south of Kuwait before calling off the demonstration barely an hour after it began.
The opposition had called the march to protest against an amendment to an electoral law ordered by the emir last month ahead of a snap December 1 parliamentary election.
“After we have expressed our message of rejecting any play in the constitution, we announce the end of the procession,” said the organizers on their Twitter account named “The Dignity of a Nation.”
Activists said a number of protesters were rounded up but there were no immediate reports of injuries.
Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah late yesterday met four opposition figures including two former MPs in what appeared to be a mediation effort aimed at ending the stalemate.