Kuwaiti opposition to call for mass protests

Kuwait’s opposition bloc has said it will call for mass protests across the country hours after it announced its first national political reform project. A senior opposition figure said on Saturday the intended reforms includes, amendments to 36 constitutional articles that would limit the legislative power to the national assembly and selecting the country’s prime minister from the bloc winning the largest number of MPs.

The Popular Action bloc, Hashd, quoted on its official Twitter account its general coordinator and former MP, Musallam Al-Barrak, as saying that the bloc “will call for mass rallies soon”. Al-Barrak warned the Interior Ministry of any action against the masses saying the Kuwaiti people will defend themselves. In a statement the opposition bloc urged the Kuwaiti people to rally around the political reform project.

The statement read “Kuwait has suffered from harsh conditions over the past two years during which the nation’s freedom and dignity has been infringed; state institutions were absent and corruption has spread everywhere.” It added, “Today the national political reform project comes to fulfil the aspirations of the Kuwaiti people and uproot the main causes that harm the national consensus.”