'My Homeland will Always be Beautiful'

KUWAIT: Third constituency candidate Abdulkareem Al-Kandari speaks to Kuwait Times. —Photo by Joseph Shagra

KUWAIT: Former MP Abdulkareem Al-Kandari is running in the Assembly elections from the third constituency for the second time. When he succeeded in the 2013 elections, he was the youngest member of parliament. His campaign is titled 'My Homeland will Always be Beautiful'.

Kandari was born in 1981 and graduated from the Faculty of Law at Kuwait University in 2003. He received his master's degree from Strasbourg University in 2006 in Commercial Law, and a PhD in Business and Companies Law in 2011 from the same university. He teaches at Kuwait University and is a licensed arbitrator at the Bar Association. He was a member of various committees in the previous parliament.

"Housing, employment, health and education are priorities. All MPs are obliged to work on resolving these issues, whether with suggestions and solutions, or by executing the projects that were prepared by the government. In fact, we have a deficiency in executing and applying laws," he told Kuwait Times.

Main issues

Kandari is focusing on four issues:

Reviewing the laws of the previous parliament: "These laws suffer from various problems - either there are legislative shortcomings, they have no clear goal, or are against the benefit of citizens. An example is the review of custodial detention, as the previous parliament prolonged the period up to 21 days, and we see this as a violation of freedoms. Also, the electronic media law censors and controls media and does not organize it," said Kandari.

Fight against economic reforms: "We are not against economic reforms, but this must start from the government and not individuals, as people should be the last component in these reform plans. The government should be a model for reforms and should stop wasting public funds and adjust spending, including canceling billions in grants," he added.

Issuing a law that bans the government from cutting salaries, allowances and subsidies: "We want to stop the government from decreasing or cutting any of these unless they get the approval of the parliament. The government doesn't consider allowances and subsidies as part of the salary, so they consider decreasing or cutting them, and we should ban the government from doing so," Kandari pointed out.

Changing the election system: "I want to change the 'one-vote' election system. Although I succeeded during previous elections through this system, I intend to work on changing it, as it is supporting sectarianism and factionalism. I will work together with other MPs to change it to a more suitable system for all. If we don't find a better alternative, we should go back to the previous four-vote system," explained Kandari.

Not resolved

"I will also work on the issues that were not resolved or were neglected during the previous parliament, such as activating the criminalization of the conflict of interest law. I will also propose criminalizing bribery in the private sector, as it is only sanctioned in the public sector," he noted.

"I want to scrap the local agency system in Kuwait. The law that was issued earlier this year only organizes the agency, but I aim to cancel it completely, so the parent company can invest directly in Kuwait. This will encourage foreign investors to invest in the country. We also want to activate the companies law that should simplify the paperwork of doing business through the one-window system," Kandari added.

"Today, Kuwait is repelling foreign investments, while at the same time we aim to turn Kuwait into a financial center, as HH the Amir said. Young Kuwaitis are investing abroad, whether in the GCC region or elsewhere, as the local environment is not encouraging," he concluded.

By Nawara Fattahova