KUWAIT CITY, 21 February 2005 — The Kuwaiti government yesterday called on Parliament to hold a special session to debate a bill granting women full political rights, the minister of social affairs and labor said.
“The Cabinet discussed the issue today... and requested the Parliament speaker convene a special session to debate this bill at the earliest time,” Faisal Al-Hajji was quoted as saying by the KUNA news agency.
The bill, approved by the Cabinet last May, calls for amending the election law which limits voting and candidacy to Kuwaiti males in an apparent contradiction of the constitution which stipulates gender equality.
The move comes a few days after 10 lawmakers filed a motion to refer the election law to the constitutional court in a bid to grant full political rights to the emirate’s disenfranchised women.
Hajji called on lawmakers to coordinate with the government to pass the bill in the current parliamentary term which ends in June.
To pass, the bill requires a simple majority of the 49 elected MPs and 16 ministers who are entitled to vote. One of the ministers is an elected MP.
The bill is expected, however, to be opposed by the 13-member Islamist bloc and several tribal MPs on religious and social grounds.
In November 1999, the Islamist-tribal alliance narrowly defeated a bill granting Kuwaiti women their full political rights put forward by Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.
After presenting his government’s legislative program to Parliament in July 2003, Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah promised to renew efforts to amend the election law in women’s favor.
Kuwaiti parliamentary elections are scheduled for July 2007.
Among Kuwait’s population of 956,000, only 140,000 men are eligible voters.
Kuwaiti women have been pressing for their political rights since 1963. Women activists have repeatedly taken the issue to the constitutional court which has rejected the claims on technical grounds.
