By Atyab Al-Shatti

major pillars that determine the outcome of each parliament are works and achievements towards securing citizens' rights and freedoms, passing laws to set the development strategies of the country and unifying all segments of the society to form one nation, which is a responsibility that requires professionalism and experience from members of parliament. Such requirements do not only need academic credentials and qualifications, but also an absolutely clear political vision and understanding of Amiri decrees well to assist through best practices and endeavors to develop and improve the country.

On October 19, 2020, the Cabinet approved a decree calling for elections on December 5, 2020, according to the "one vote" electoral system. Among the conditions for candidacy were:

1- Original Kuwaiti nationality, according to the law.

2- The name of the candidate must be included in one of the electoral rolls.

3- The candidate should not be younger than 30 years of age to be eligible to run for elections.

4- The eligibility to read and write the Arabic language.

5- The candidate must not have been previously convicted of a felony or a crime against honor or trust, unless the crime has been cleared off the records and a determined time has passed as determined by the criminal law to consider them to stand for elections. Anyone who has been convicted of a final verdict in the crime of insulting the divine, the prophets or HH the Amir shall be deprived from running in elections.

Now, what this decree missed out and caused severe chaos is the fact that article four does not require any sort of proficiency, experience and academic expertise such as in law or political science from the candidate to become eligible to run for parliament. No minimum educational level is required but to be able to read and speak Arabic, and therefore anyone regardless of their experience, credentials or agenda can run!

This has caused democracy to suffer in Kuwait, as byelections assisted many candidates to reach the parliament without considering priorities and needs of the people, but rather personal needs expressed in the byelections. Moreover, unqualified parliamentarians misrepresented the country at an international level by making radical racist statements against migrant workers, women and marginalized communities.

The current decree lacks the understanding or the true role of a parliamentarian, who should possess minimum qualifications and credentials to assist in the legislative process. The parliament has witnessed several unjust laws passed by the parliamentarians, such as passing the law that considered Islamic college graduates who haven't studied the law qualified to practice law and become judges, lawyers and present cases!

Unqualified parliamentarians displayed undesired racism against marginalized communities, which backfired against Kuwait's image internationally. Kuwait is now being held responsible for racist statements and hate speech made by a former unqualified parliamentarian.

I quote Montesquieu: "There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice."

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