By B Izzak

KUWAIT: HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah continued on Tuesday political consultations in order to name a prime minister following the elections, by meeting with the caretaker premier and three ex-prime ministers.

He met HH Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and HH Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah, and spoke on phone with HH Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah. HH the Crown Prince also met with caretaker Prime Minister HH Sheikh Ahmad Al-Nawaf Al-Sabah, who was appointed in July.

On Monday, HH the Crown Prince met former Assembly speakers Marzouq Al-Ghanem and Ahmad Al-Saadoun, the veteran former three-time speaker who won a seat in the Assembly. He is expected to be elected to lead the Assembly over the next four years.

Following the consultations, HH the Crown Prince will issue a decree naming the next prime minister, who is highly expected to be Sheikh Ahmad, hailed by the opposition as a reformist.

KUWAIT: HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets former premiers HH Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah on Oct 4, 2022.

Meanwhile, several candidates who lost the election after achieving good results announced their intention to challenge the election results, citing errors in the counting of votes. Former MP Ahmad Al-Azemi said that he has conclusive evidence that he won the 10th place in the fifth constituency, which guarantees him the last seat in the district, although official results show him in 11th position, trailing by some 260 votes.

Azemi said that he had representatives at the counting centers and whose calculations clearly show he won a seat in the Assembly. He said he will demand the constitutional court recount votes.

Former MP Saadoun Hammad said he obtained the full details of the results from the interior ministry. He said the charts show he came in 10th place rather than 12th as announced by judges in the third constituency. Interior ministry charts are not accepted by courts, which only adopt charts prepared by the judges. The ministry of interior also denied in a statement that it had given the charts to Hammad, and vowed it will take legal actions.

KUWAIT: HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets HH Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah on Oct 4, 2022.

Former MP Ahmad Al-Hamad, who came in 12th position in the second constituency, also said he found major errors in the counting of votes, adding that calculations he made show he has won a seat. Even former MP Mubarak Al-Ajmi, who came in 48th position in the fifth constituency with just over 800 votes, blamed his bad showing on calculation errors during counting of votes. He said he will challenge the results.

Several other candidates have also said they will challenge the counting process at the constitutional court. The court has already received petitions alleging that two emergency decrees issued before the election violate the constitution, and accordingly the election outcome must be revoked. The constitutional court will set a date for looking into such petitions. Its decisions are final.