Kuwait Court Rejects Petitions to Dissolve Parliament

The constitutional court in the oil-rich Gulf state of Kuwait on Monday rejected two petitions demanding that July parliamentary polls be nullified and the house dissolved because of procedural flaws.

"The court rejects the petitions," said judge Yussef al-Mutawa, head of the constitutional court, in a brief hearing.

He did not explain the legal grounds for rejecting the two petitions. Details of the judgement are expected to be released later.

One petition challenged that the procedures of the polls were in violation of the constitution and demanded that the election be nullified and parliament dissolved.

The second petition argued that the controversial electoral constituency law enacted unilaterally by the government over a year ago was not in line with the constitution and as a result the election should be declared illegal and parliament dissolved.

The law had reduced the number of candidates a Kuwaiti can vote for from four to just one and as a result the opposition boycotted parliamentary polls in December last year and again in July.

The law also led to street protests by the opposition that occasionally turned violent.

The same court had nullified parliamentary polls in June this year and June 2012, citing procedural flaws. It ordered parliament dissolved on both occasions.

The court also nullified the election of two MPs and declared two candidates in the July polls winners. The court justified its action by citing mistakes in the counting of votes, which is carried out manually in Kuwait.