A grassroots campaign in Kuwait has been launched ahead of next month’s parliamentary election to prevent buying votes.
The campaign, dubbed Nazaha (Honesty) is being led by a group of young Kuwaiti volunteers whose objective is to maintain the integrity of the poll and not to allow Kuwait to be “sold,” according to Al-Jazeera.
The campaign aims to appeal to voters and explain that buying votes is forbidden both legally and by religious law and that it is damaging to the nation.
The group wants to open a hotline at the Interior Ministry for people to report incidents of vote buying.
The Kuwait parliament was dissolved in March after the government resigned, citing disputes between the legislative and executive bodies.
Early elections have been called for May 17, from which observers hope a new and more stable leadership will emerge.
Four governments have been formed in Kuwait over the past two years, because of repeated political crises.
Due to a change in the electoral constituencies law in 2006, May’s elections will be based on five major districts instead of 25 small districts, a measure that could potentially make the leadership more secure.
The new constituency structure could mitigate vote buying which has prevailed in previous elections.
Jamie Etheridge, managing editor of the Kuwait Times, said new faces were expected in parliament as a result of the new system.
“In the past there have been instances of vote buying because there were 25 districts in a country where 300,000 people have the right to vote, so it’s easier to influence people by buying votes,” Etheridge told The Media Line.
“This time around it won’t be so easy. In the fourth and fifth districts you have nearly 100,000 voters in each district. The ability to buy votes and use that influence to gain a seat in parliament is not going to be the same, so we’re expecting newer faces.”