By Nawara Fattahova

KUWAIT: Nine candidates from the third district have filed a new appeal before the constitutional court contesting the result of the parliamentary elections. These candidates believe many mistakes were made during the polls. Attorney Nawaf Al-Fuzei said there are suspicions about the electoral process, which may lead to dissolving the parliament.

"Then there are other appeals against vote buying and negligence by the interior ministry over this issue. They didn't take any action although it's a criminal act according to the election law. Also, not checking the identity of voters is another violation of the election law. There were transparent panels between the voters and the judges to allow removal of facemasks to verify if the photo on the ID matches the person, which didn't happen, and I have witnesses," Fuzei said.

"Leaking ballots on social media is another violation of the law. Moreover, one of the candidates holds another citizenship besides that of Kuwait, which is illegal. So we have a group of violations, while only one of these reasons can lead to canceling these elections. Any violation of the election procedures set in the law will lead to dissolution of the parliament," he explained.

These candidates insist on summoning the electoral commission before the constitutional court and recounting and compiling all ballots in front of the public and the media. "The ballot boxes should be reopened and the votes recounted in front of the appealing candidates. This is our legal right, to demand a recount. When the counting was done, the judge held the ballot at a distance of over 20 meters from the representative of the candidate, which is impossible to see from that distance. The representatives registered their protest against this, and we will include their testimony," concluded Fuzei.

Dr Wael Al-Mutawa, another candidate, said it's strange that the ministry of interior hasn't announced the final results till now. "We want to know who voted for us in each committee, as the numbers released are not logical. Something weird happened and we have suspicions in all areas and want to know what happened. Our democracy is in danger. The elections fraud in 1967 repeated during these elections. My family members voted for me in Kaifan, but they said I didn't get a single vote from this area, which shows forgery," he pointed out.

Dr Ibrahim Dashti, another candidate from the same district, stated that there are three factors for democratic elections. "There should be equal chances for all candidates, transparency and independence. The election fraud started in 2016 through changing the address on civil IDs, where people collectively changed their addresses, particularly in the second and third districts. The other violation is the crime of buying votes, which exceeded 10,000 voters. We can't believe that the ministry of interior doesn't know this," he noted.

According to him, there were no equal chances for all candidates. "The cost of the election campaign for some candidates exceeded KD 3 to 5 million, which includes advertising and buying votes. Also, I was oppressed compared to other candidates as I was disqualified from the elections due to a tweet, which is wrong, while other candidates who have criminal records participated. I was only included in the list of candidates 12 hours before the elections," stressed Dashti.

"Regarding the independence of elections, there was no independent committee like in other democratic systems. Also, the chaos and crowds during the elections was on purpose. Furthermore, I have over 20 witnesses who were not asked to remove their facemask and their identity was not checked," he said.