Court Rejects Challenges, Confirms July 27 Election
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SUBSCRIPTION MONDAY, JULY 15, 2013 RAMADAN 6, 1434 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Police warn Snails face: England win against Bahrain’s treatment offers first Ashes Emsak: 03:14 ‘Tamarod’ slime power thriller Fajer: 03:26 Dohr: 11:54 Asr: 15:28 Maghreb: 18:49 8 40 20 Eshaa: 20:19 Court rejects challenges, Max 48º Min 33º confirms July 27 election High Tide 04:12 & 15:55 Factional infighting stalls development, reforms Low Tide 10:22 & 22:29 40 PAGES NO: 15870 150 FILS By B Izzak and Agencies conspiracy theories KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti Administrative Court threw out yes- terday legal challenges to a parliamentary election set for July 27, a judicial source and an elections candidate What a low- said, effectively paving the way for the vote to proceed on time. Almost constant factional infighting over the profile show past seven years has prompted repeated elections, stalled infrastructure development and held up eco- nomic reforms in Kuwait, an important Gulf Arab oil producer and US ally. The Administrative Court refused to rule on petitions demanding that it orders parliamentary elections By Badrya Darwish scheduled be suspended over legal irregularities. The court said that dealing with the issue is “outside its juris- diction” which means that the court is not competent to rule on four petitions demanding the election be halted to rectify a number of procedural flaws. [email protected] Lawyer Adel Abdulhadi, who filed one of the peti- tions, said he will challenge the verdict at the Appeals Court which is expected to hold a session urgently to look into the matter. The Appeals Court ruling can also amadan and elections. Do they match or do be challenged before the Court of Cassation, the high- they meet somewhere in the middle? I doubt est court in the country. Abdulhadi’s petition alleged it. I have said this before. Why couldn’t the R that the current Kuwaiti Cabinet does not meet a key elections be postponed. Ramadan is not the time requirement in the constitution and thus it is illegal and for elections. all decisions made by the government are also illegal, This year there is a low-profile of activities and including approving the decree that called for the July actions on the part of both candidates and voters. 27 election. Even the pulse from diwaniyas shows that people Under the Kuwaiti law, the Cabinet must include at are not as interested to discuss elections compared least one elected MP and Minister of Social Affairs and to previous campaigns. Of course, after eight parlia- Labor Thekra Al-Rasheedi was the elected member. But ments in the span of five years one tends to lose Abdulhadi argued in court that following the June 16 interest. Except for the candidates themselves. verdict by the Constitutional Court in which it scrapped After all it is 48 degrees Celsius. We are all fasting. the December 1 election process and ordered the By 7pm we are all dehydrated and tired. Then we Assembly dissolved, Rasheedi no longer is an elected have to break our fast and perform taraweeh MP and accordingly the Cabinet does not have an elect- prayers (special prayers particular to Ramadan). ed MP, rendering it unconstitutional. These finish around 10pm. Some 80 percent of us Another petition was filed by a lawyer on behalf of a perform taraweeh prayers. If you are a dedicated Kuwaiti voter who said that his newly-established resi- worshipper you will make the 20 rakas (number of dential area is not part of any of the five constituencies praying rituals) which is a complete prayer. If you and thus he cannot vote and demanded that the elec- are less dedicated to these prayers you will make tion be halted until the issue is rectified. If the courts the eight rakas and you will finish by 9.30pm. Who refuse the petitions, the lawyers can challenge the elec- will then be dedicated to the election with fresh tion results before the Constitutional Court which may mind to be ready to discuss politics? declare the election unconstitutional for the third time As it is we are fed up with politics in the Middle since June last year. East. Our politics have become so fluid that you do In a related development, the Interior Ministry yes- not know who is the leader, even a democratically- terday denied that it had caught cases of vote-buying elected leader, to be ousted next? We go to bed by some candidates, describing the news about the under one leader and wake up under another? Or a issue as “rumors”. The ministry added that statements bunch of them working together. made by some candidates about vote-buying are mere- Let’s stay in the Ramadan spirit and clear our ly allegations not supported by evidence. It said that no souls from all the sins we have committed through- candidate has so far complained to the ministry of spe- out the whole year. Maybe we will get some bless- NAIROBI: A child recites the Quran during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at a Madrassa in Nairobi, cific vote-buying cases. ings and forgiveness from our God. Then we may Kenya yesterday. — AP Continued on Page 15 have a clearer mind to choose the best candidates for our great parliament. With regards to the rumours that are spreading - some candidates are giving money. I myself have Black teen’s killer walks free not been approached by any candidate. I only get invitations for election seminars and campaign talks. These, by the way, have been low-profile so far. Protests erupt • Racially charged trial transfixed US I doubt that many people will be bothered with elections in the last ten days of Ramadan when peo- SANFORD: Protests broke out yesterday thought Martin was a criminal just ple attend the night prayers after taraweeh and pre- after a Florida jury found neighborhood because he was black, and those con- pare for the Night of Power (Laylat Al-Qadr). watchman George Zimmerman not vinced that the volunteer watchman act- Kuwait delivers Let’s see how it goes. Time will tell. guilty of murdering unarmed black teen ed in self-defense. Have nice fasting and nice iftar. Trayvon Martin in a racially charged trial Spontaneous protests broke out that transfixed the nation. The trial raised overnight in US cities including San strong passions among those who Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, free oil to Egypt believed that Zimmerman-whose father Washington and Atlanta. Ramadan Kareem Kuwait has sent two oil tankers Most US-allied Gulf monarchies is white and whose mother is Peruvian - Continued on Page 15 KUWAIT: carrying crude and diesel worth $200 regard the Brotherhood as a threat. million to Egypt, a Kuwaiti newspaper Kuwait’s Arabic-language Al-Rai news- Wisdom said yesterday - part of a $4 billion aid paper quoted oil sources as saying that package pledged by the Gulf Arab state an oil tanker carrying between 90,000 last week after the ouster of Islamist and 100,000 tons of diesel that hap- behind President Mohamed Morsi. Kuwait last pened to be travelling through the Suez week joined other oil-producing Gulf Canal was diverted to Egypt. A second states in pledging a massive aid package tanker with 1.1 million barrels of crude worth $12 billion to Egypt in a show of was ordered to sail towards Egypt, it fasting support after the army toppled the said. Muslim Brotherhood government. Continued on Page 15 By Hassan T Bwambale he word Ramadan comes from the Arabic root Egypt’s prosecutors quiz word, “Ramad,” which means “excessive heat”. TPeople in the past used to fast during summer Morsi over prison break when the heat was at its climax. This year Ramadan will come during summer. Sometimes fasting is CAIRO: Investigators began questioning rial candidates, was sworn in as interim observed in winter because the Gregorian calendar is Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed vice president for foreign relations, the eleven or twelve days ahead of the lunar calendar, Morsi and members of his Muslim presidency said. Yesterday’s inquiry which means that Ramadan cycles through a com- Brotherhood yesterday over their escape relates to the escape by Morsi and plete year in about 35 years. Ramadan is the 9th from jail during the 2011 uprising, judi- dozens of Brotherhood members from month of the Islamic lunar calendar. cial sources said. The move came after Wadi Natrun prison during the uprising FLORIDA: George Zimmerman smiles after a not prosecutors received criminal complaints that ended former president Hosni WHAT DOES FASTING MEAN? guilty verdict was handed down in his trial at the against Morsi and other senior Islamists, Mubarak’s three-decade rule. Siyaam (fasting) literally means: to refrain from. Seminole County Courthouse yesterday in and as caretaker premier Hazem Al- A court in June found that the Islamist From the Islamic context it means: refraining from Sanford, Fla. (Inset) Tanetta Foster breaks into Beblawi resumed talks on forming his Hamas rulers of Gaza and Lebanon’s food, drinks, smoking and conjugal rites from dawn to tears in front of the Seminole County Criminal cabinet. Shiite Hezbollah movement helped pris- sunset. Justice Center after learning George Zimmerman Prominent liberal leader Mohamed oners. State Security prosecution service Continued on Page 15 had been found not guilty in the Murder of ElBaradei, who assisted in the talks investigators interviewed Morsi at an Trayvon Martin. — AFP Beblawi began a day earlier with ministe- Continued on Page 15 MONDAY, JULY 15, 2013 LOCAL KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received members of the Arab and International Relations Council and its Chairman Mohammad Al-Saqer at Bayan Palace yesterday.