Democracy Reporting International in cooperation with Kuwait Transparency Society launches its new report on “Assessment of the Electoral Framework in Kuwait”
Kuwait’s framework for parliamentary elections is largely in line with international standards, although a few shortcomings should be addressed. Even though Kuwait does not clearly permit the formation of political parties, and women received the right to vote and to stand in elections only in 2005, the country has a long-standing history of pluralistic and genuine elections, concluded the report by Democracy Reporting International (DRI) and the Kuwait Transparency Association.
“There are a few issues that should be addressed: there is no full equality of the vote and problems in the May 2008 showed that the process of counting and aggregating votes needs improvements” says Paul O´Grady, Senior Associate of DRI. “While parliamentary elections are pluralistic and competitive, the role of the parliament is limited, because the government does not need parliamentary approval. Nevertheless, Kuwait is the most participatory Gulf state”, stresses Michael Meyer-Resende, DRI’s co-ordinator
The detailed report can be downloaded:
http://www.democracy-reporting.org/downloads/reports/dri_kuwait_report_08.pdf
