Kuwaiti Court: Challenge against 2013 elections lacks real, legal basis

The Constitutional Court said on Monday its rejection of a challenge lodged against the National Assembly elections held in July 2013 came due to the fact that it had no actual or legal basis. The court, which issued its much anticipated ruling earlier Monday upholding the recent parliamentary elections, argued that the challenge to Decree No 158/2013 for allegedly breaching Article 56 of the Constitution is of no sound basis. Decree No 158/2013, which called on voters for parliamentary elections, was taken upon an earlier relevant verdict by the Constitutional Court and thereupon the challenge to this decree becomes meaningless, according to the court's arguments. The court confirmed that the decision on the dissolution of the 2009 National Assembly and the decree calling on voters for general polls in December 2012 are sound. But, it ruled that the challenge against Decree-Law No 21/2012 on the creation of a national election committee is acceptable. Accordingly, there is no ground for claims that this ruling supposes the reinstatement of the 2009 parliament, the court affirmed. The court also revoked the membership of both Maassouma Al-Mubarak and Osama Al-Tahoos, and gave the seats in the constituencies concerned to Abdelhameed Dashti and Nabil Al-Fadhel. The court session, presided by Chief Justice Yousef Al-Mutawaah, considered 53 petitions regarding the elections filed in all of the country's five constituencies. The court turned down 47 petitions, accepted four and settled another two.