32 women among Kuwait parliament election candidates

KUWAIT, June 4 (Reuters) Thirty-two women will be among 402 parliamentary candidates standing for election in Kuwait on June 29, the first time in the history of the Gulf Arab state that women will be allowed to seek office.

Most candidates are due to finish inaugurating campaigns in the coming days. In some areas of the capital sidewalks and roundabouts have disappeared behind candidates posters, pictures, banners, and signs announcing campaign slogans.

''This is a true festival, women will run and vote for parliament for the first time,'' candidate Khaledah al-Khadher, a 48-year-old doctor and mother of eight, told Reuters on Sunday.

''I know everyone is saying women most likely won't win any seats but I believe women will reach parliament, God willing,'' added Khadher, who unsuccessfully ran in a municipal election.

A historic bill passed last year granted female suffrage in the US ally and key oil producer.

Government figures showed after registration officially closed on Saturday that 402 people, including 32 women, penned their names as candidates in the poll.

Some 340,000 voters of whom 195,000, or 57 percent, are women, are eligible to choose the new 50-seat house that replaces the previous assembly dissolved last month by the emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

The emir's action came after a row between reformist MPs and the cabinet over electoral reforms.

The poll will be contested under the old law that divides the country of one million Kuwaitis into 25 electoral districts. This issue was at the centre of the battle between reformist MPs and the government and led to parliament's dissolution.

The cabinet had backed a bill that cuts the districts to 10 but the reformist MPs wanted the number lowered to five to guard against what they call polls irregularities such as vote buying.

''Reforming electoral constituencies is the first gateway for reform'', former MP Abdullah al-Roomi told the state news agency.

Three from the Sabah ruling family had withdrawn their candidacies at the request of the emir to avoid getting embroiled in polling rough-and-tumble.

No member of the Sabah family, which controls key cabinet posts, has run in such elections. The assembly is a powerful body that often clashes with the cabinet, most recently over electoral districts.

Newspapers said 47 MPs in the dissolved assembly are bidding for re-election, including former speakers Jassem al-Kharafi and Ahmad al-Saadoun. Candidates include powerful Islamists -- who formed a 15-man bloc in the previous assembly.

English language daily Kuwait Times said the poll is branded by reformists as a ''true battle between corruption and reform.'' REUTERS SK PM1950