KUWAIT CITY, 10 May 2006 — Kuwait’s information minister has resigned his office to protest a controversial bill to reform the country’s election law, a source close to the minister said yesterday.
Anas Al-Rasheed resigned at the end of a marathon Cabinet session overnight concerning efforts to overhaul Kuwait’s electoral law, the source said.
The resignation has not yet been accepted. It becomes official only after Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah signs it.
Al-Rasheed submitted an official letter of resignation yesterday morning.
Al-Rasheed, 38, a liberal academic who was appointed to the post in March last year, had vehemently objected to plans to amend the constitution which was promulgated in 1962.
The amendment, discussed by the Cabinet in a extraordinary meeting Monday night, aims to increase the number of MPs in the fully-elected Parliament from 50 to 60, the source said.
The country has been gripped by a heated debate over moves to slash the number of constituencies from 25 to five amid accusations that the small electorates created by the current system paved the way for vote-buying.
A ministerial committee formed to study the issue has recommended to the Cabinet that the number of constituencies be slashed to five to eliminate “widespread irregularities and corruption” in elections.
The Cabinet has held several meetings in the past three weeks but failed to reach a decision on the issue because of intense divisions in the government.
The matter has also roiled the Parliament. The electoral reforms are solidly backed by 29 of the 50-member house while 17 MPs, mostly tribal and conservatives, are deadly opposed to the proposal.
Supporters and opponents of the bill have been holding daily public rallies to drum up popular support.
A number of pro-reform MPs have vowed to resign from Parliament if the government fails to push the bill.
Several hundred young activists staged a demonstration Friday outside the Cabinet headquarters to press for the change.
They also plan to organize daily sit-ins outside Parliament starting Friday until May 15, when the bill is scheduled for debate in Parliament.
“This is an expression that the Kuwaiti people are eager to get rid of this election system that has promoted corruption,” said Nabil Al-Mufarrej, head of National Union of Kuwaiti Students.
