The interior and defense committee at Kuwait’s National Assembly on Wednesday demanded that the legal and legislative committee urgently finalizes a draft law on the establishment of an independent higher election commission.
The legal and legislative committee will vote on the draft law in a meeting on Sunday. It had delayed the vote to further examine the bill.
The head of the parliamentary interior and defense committee, MP Saadoun Hammad, affirmed that all draft laws on the committee’s agenda have been reviewed. He added that a decision was taken for summoning competent authorities to take their views on these regulations.
Hammad said that passing the draft law for establishing an independent higher election commission is vital to avoid repeating mistakes witnessed by the 2022 elections.
He explained that the government had previously submitted a draft law establishing the commission. The draft law was referred to the committee on November 22, 2020, before the government withdrew it on March 21, 2021.
Hammad said that the proposal will be subject to some amendments to ensure the integrity of upcoming elections.
Amendments include guaranteeing the presence of a representative for each candidate in each electoral committee.
They also encompass a new mechanism for counting votes, so that the judge is not the only one who counts the votes.
Votes will be displayed via a projector for everyone to see.
Hammad revealed another amendment represented in “allowing all media outlets to attend vote-counting processes in the committees to ensure transparency.”
He stressed that ballot boxes will be shown to everyone before the start of the voting process.
