By B Izzak

KUWAIT: The constitutional court rejected on Tuesday a petition challenging the legality of two emergency Amiri decrees related to the snap polls, and also rejected a demand to suspend the Sept 29 general elections. The rejection means that Kuwaiti voters will head to polls on Thursday as scheduled to elect a new 50-seat National Assembly, hoping to end decades of political disputes.

It also means that the constitutional court, the country's top court whose rulings are final, will not look into the petitions that claimed that the two Amiri decrees violated the constitution. The first decree stipulates that Kuwaiti voters will prove their residential address and therefore their electoral constituency with their civil IDs and not the citizenship document, as used to be the case in all 16 previous elections.

The measure came after a report showed that some candidates transferred hundreds of voters from one constituency to another to boost their chances of winning. The second decree added all new residential areas to the five existing constituencies to allow residents to participate in the polls.

Kuwait enters into election silence on Wednesday, and authorities have called on the media not to publish interviews or any campaign materials of all candidates on Wednesday and Thursday. Replaying interviews and other election material is also prohibited.

The court of cassation on Tuesday upheld the disqualification of four candidates for being convicted of political offenses. Around 15 candidates have been barred from contesting the polls for being convicted over criminal and political cases. This leaves 305 candidates in the fray for the 50 seats. Most political groupings have fielded candidates.