Interior ministry denies it busted vote-buying gang

By B Izzak

KUWAIT: The interior ministry denied on Sunday reports that its agents had busted a group of people, mostly women, arranging to buy votes in favor of a former MP who was a member of the dissolved National Assembly. The ministry said in a statement that it will immediately announce when police bust such an illegal activity by any candidate.

Deputy speaker of the dissolved house MP Ahmad Al-Shuhoumi strongly denied rumors on social media charging that the “busted” group was working in his favor. In a video posted on Twitter, Shuhoumi warned he will file a lawsuit in court against all those suspected of fabricating the false reports and spreading them to distort his image. Shuhoumi is bidding for re-election from the first constituency.

Before the ministry statement, former opposition MP Bader Al-Dahoum strongly lashed out at those who are trying to buy votes and described them as “those who sell their country”. He called on the government to apply the law firmly. Candidate from the first constituency Wasmi Al-Wasmi also blasted vote-buying operations, saying “selling a vote to corrupt candidates is like taking part in corruption”.

Meanwhile, many of the 376 candidates bidding for the 50 seats have increased the tempo of the election campaign, highlighting corruption and economic, social and other issues. The snap polls, scheduled for Sept 29, were called after HH the Amir dissolved the National Assembly last month following months of non-stop political disputes between opposition MPs and the government.

Islamist candidate Khaled Al-Shulaimi, running in the fourth constituency, warned the next government that the Assembly will not accept economic reforms if they came at the cost of Kuwaiti citizens or resulted in imposing taxes or lifting subsidies. Candidate Thamer Al-Enezi from the second constituency slammed the previous governments’ economic policies, saying assets in the general reserve fund rose to $156 billion, but vanished in a few years to finance wages in the face of declining oil prices. Enezi also called for amending the Assembly’s internal charter to limit the powers enjoyed by the speaker in order to not to make their powers unquestionable.

In other news, the information ministry said it has decided to send a number of social media outlets to court for violating a decision by the ministry to ban opinion polls on the outcome of the elections. The ban came because a majority of these media outlets are not qualified to produce scientific opinion polls, and thus they use opinion polls to influence the opinion of voters in favor of certain candidates.

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