By B Izzak

KUWAIT: MP Marzouq Al-Ghanem on Sunday submitted a number of political reform draft laws, including a bill demanding the interpretation of a law that bars political prisoners from running in elections. Ghanem said that he has sent the draft law to the National Assembly to be sent later to the legal and legislative committee. The bill questions the validity of the law that bars politicians from elections, which was passed in 2016. Ghanem said he believes the law does not apply retroactively and also does not apply to crimes that took place before the law became effective.

The law bars persons convicted of insulting HH the Amir from running for public office. Ghanem said he has resubmitted a draft law calling for a fundamental solution to the issue of stateless people, known as bedoons, adding the bill provides a durable and fair solution. He also resubmitted another law calling to establish a central body for citizenship in a bid to safeguard national identity. Ghanem also submitted a draft law calling to amend the election law to state that female members of parliament must be at least 20 percent of winners in each constituency, which effectively means there…